PLYMOUTH, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman has made it her life’s work to help people during the one of the toughest battles of their lives.
Cancer is a battle Jill Swanson knows all too well. In 2014, she was diagnosed with colon cancer.
During her first chemotherapy session, Swanson said she realized just how many people the disease affects in such a severe way.
“I went into the cancer center and saw all different stages of cancer and realized this was so much bigger than what I was going through,” Swanson said.
She wanted to help the people she was meeting. Before her second chemotherapy appointment, she was already making little care packages filled with items to help others get through their treatments.
“I handed them out in the waiting room during my entire seven months of chemotherapy,” Swanson said.
That was the start of Lemons of Love, which is now a large nonprofit organization that she runs. In nine years, she’s put together and shipped care packages to more than 27,000 people around the country.
The packages contain carefully chosen items including chemotherapy port-pillows, anti-nausea drops and pictures from kids.
“To have a gift come from someone you know, someone that loves you, and also have it come from somebody who has been there before you, it’s a big statement,” she said.
The packages are made at the Lemons of Love offices in Plymouth, Wis. and Mount Prospect, Ill. Both locations offer support for people and families affected by cancer.
In Plymouth, Wis., a healing garden for the community is being built outside Lemons of Love.
“It resonates on why we do what we do, to be able to put these together and continue to share them is so wonderful,” Swanson said. “I think that my mission on Earth here from now on is to keep providing spaces and keep providing things for people impacted by cancer.”
Swanson called Lemons of Love her “making lemonade” project. She tried creating something good when she was going through a tough situation. Little did she know it would become her purpose in life.