'Betsy Bag' helps Siouxland cancer patients during treatment

The family of Elizabeth Ann "Betsy" Bueltel wanted to offer security to area cancer patients who experience sudden nausea issues."Mom was the kind of person who wanted to remain as active as possible, but the fear of sudden nausea in public caused her great anxiety," said her daughter, Heather Bird.Over the course of her illness, Bueltel developed -- with the help of others -- a tote bag full of items she needed to give her the security to get out and do things.Bueltel, 57, of Sergeant Bluff, passed away June 17 after an eight-month battle with cancer. Her family saw a way to remember her through the creation of the Betsy Bag tote, which is given to patients at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center."The overall idea came from our mom's sister, Paula Hunstad," Bird recalled. "She gathered some of the items that were helpful to our grandmother as she battled cancer and put together a bag of similar items for our mom to utilize as she underwent treatment."The family chose to use Bueltel's memorial donations in a way that would benefit others, but also would allow them to "pay it forward" by allowing them to be involved in the project rather than to just "cut a check" in her memory."Shortly after we lost our mom, Paula had the idea to make these bags and donating them to the cancer center for others who were going through a similar journey," Bird said. "We all agreed and never looked back."The Betsy Bag tote contains a gallon-size plastic zip lock bag discreetly disguised by a washable cloth cover made by Bird's 91-year-old grandmother, Lucille Bueltel. The cover can be pulled off after use for easy disposal. The tote bag also contains a journal, pen, moist hand tissues, peppermints, gum, Kleenex, hand sanitizer, chap stick and a bottle of water."It was actually therapeutic to us all to be involved and knowing that we would be helping others has been a big part of our healing process," Bird said. "We want to be able to help as many people as possible and knowing how many people are impacted by cancer and could benefit from this bag made us want to be able to help them all.Bird estimated the cost of putting together each bag was about $11."We were very cost conscious," she said. "We looked for the best prices on each of the items in the bag, worked with local stores to get discounts and quantities in bulk and were in constant with communication with each other to make sure we were getting the most out of every dollar."Bird credited the cancer center with the purchase of the tote bags that hold all of the items."Their support of this project allowed us to make more bags for our first 'batch' and we were able to make 250," she said. "We cannot thank those involved enough for helping us to make this project a reality. In addition to all of the family members involved in putting the bags together, all of our friends and family that donated money in her memory helped us to make this possible."The biggest challenge, Bird acknowledged, is knowing that 250 bags won't last forever."So we have challenged ourselves to plan and work together to come up with the resources to be able to make more in the future," she said. "We are looking into grants that may be available to assist with the cost of purchasing the supplies, possible fundraising ideas, and we are always looking for sales on the items that we put in the bags and starting our inventory for the next batch."Eventually, Bird would like to see this project branch out and supply bags to the hospitals as well."Our mom was diagnosed and began her chemotherapy as an inpatient and was there for three weeks," she said. "It was almost a month after she started chemotherapy before she ever stepped foot in the cancer center. We don't want those in similar situations to have to wait that long to receive the items that could help them from the get go.""The greatest joy in doing this is knowing how much our mom would have loved that we were doing this for others," Bird added. "If the situation were different and my mom was looking to do something for others in a similar situation, she would have been right in the middle of the project and would have put endless time and energy into seeing it through. Knowing that our choice on how we wanted to honor our mother is making an impact makes us more determined to continue with the project."Bird guessed her mother would be humbled and proud by this endeavor."Our mom was amazing and anytime we can honor her, we are more than happy to. We miss her more than we can express and we appreciate this opportunity share her memory."