Sunshine Room

A cancer care journey includes more than the medical treatments and the physical impacts that patients experience. It affects someone’s entire life, including their emotional and mental wellbeing.

Supporting the entire journey

Bringing back the Sunshine Room

The QEII’s Sunshine Room – a calming, therapeutic space for cancer patients to access services like wig fitting and massage therapy, to connect with cancer support networks, and to recharge from the stress of treatments – was thriving for almost two decades and then COVID-19 arrived. The world shut down, including the Sunshine Room.

When the weeks turned into months of not being able to gather in person or have volunteers in the health centre, the Sunshine Room’s space, on the 11th floor of QEII’s Victoria Building, was reclaimed for much needed critical treatment space.

There has been a gap since 2020 when the room closed. We had a dream that someday the Sunshine Room would return, and patients would feel that holistic support again.

Well, that dream is coming true this spring, when the Sunshine Room reopens its doors to the hundreds of patients who will benefit from its comforting walls.

And donor support has made this happen.

Treatment Room

A supportive, home-like environment

When the new space was confirmed, the Sunshine Room team was able to access donations that were earmarked for the Sunshine Room, to recreate the space. Those funds have helped pay for physical construction, flooring, lighting, painting, and creating a working kitchenette. Some furniture has been taken out of storage that was tucked away with the 2020 closure.

With its new address on the first floor of the QEII’s Centennial Building, the Sunshine Room will be just far enough away from clinical space to be a reprieve from the stress and reminders of treatment – the previous location was embedded within the cancer care unit, which was triggering for some patients to visit.

The new space is easy to access, it’s larger and brighter, and offers a better layout for services.

Those services include massage, Reiki therapy, touch therapy, reflexology, hair styling and wig fitting, to name a few. There will also be group programs offered in the common space.

All services are available on a drop-in basis, free of charge. All service providers are volunteers, who are donating their time to provide these supportive programs to patients.

Hairdressing Room

Ready to open, with opportunities to do more

When the doors open this spring, the Sunshine Room will be ready to wrap its arms around patients by doing the best they can with what they have. There are ongoing costs to offering services, especially for the hair and wig program. Adding furnishings for comfortable seating and gathering spaces, technology for music and program showings, vital kitchen appliances and supplies to provide refreshments, and more are just some of the ongoing needs of the Sunshine Room. We know we can continue to enhance the space and the experience for patients. Sometimes it is the small things that really have the biggest impact. You can’t put a value on the impact of this space for patients.

Your gift today will help brighten the days ahead.

Donate Now