Group knits, hands out hats to Moffitt cancer patients

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Shirley Callaway and her friends, Marci Richter, Marleen Eagan and Debbie Ellett make caps for cancer patients.(Photo: WTSP)

The first thing Shirley Callaway ever crocheted was a baby blanket for her youngest son. For 46 years, she"s been weaving together yarn for the perfect gifts.

"My family was here last weekend and I have an order list because they saw me making these," she said with a smile on her face.

Callaway and three of her friends from the Tampa Bay Newcomers social group spent the morning crocheting warm, cozy hats the kind that you rarely see in Florida.

"The whole purpose is to not only warm their heads with the hats but to warm their hearts so that they know there are people who care about them and what they"re going through," she said.

Callaway and her friends, Marci Richter, Marleen Eagan and Debbie Ellett, walked side by side into the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa with a basket full of handmade cancer caps. This is the second time that they made the trip there to hand out their creations for free to anyone fighting the dreaded disease.

These are some of the cancer caps made by the Newcomers.(Photo: WTSP)

"It makes a huge difference that they can donate a massive amount of hats for our patients," said Landee Fielland, who is the guest relations specialist for the Moffitt infusion center, where patients are treated. "It is a lot more than a hat."

Especially for the patients who receive them. On this day, the Newcomers have hats of all of the area football teams. Kelly Jarvis grabbed a blue-and-orange one with a flower on top, the colors of her beloved Florida Gators.

"Right now I"m also losing my eyebrows and eye lashes and I feel, you know," she said with tears tumbling down her face. "It"s not great to go through all this and feel unattractive at the same time.

"It"s more than a hat. It"s a hug."

Shirley Callaway, Marci Richter, Marleen Eagan and Debbie Ellett make cancer caps for patients at Moffitt.(Photo: WTSP)

Amy Presseo agrees. She took one of the hats that the Newcomers left behind on a previous trip to Moffitt. Now, she got to meet the ladies wgo made that hat face to face.

"I"ll be happy when I get my hair back," she said. "I feel comfortable with wearing a hat."

As exciting as it is to see the happy faces on the patients when the get a hat in their hands, it is a tough mission for Callaway. Her son, Chip, died of testicular cancer 25 years ago in the very same buildings that the Newcomers visiteach month.

As tough as it is, she powers through to hand out hats that bring smiles.

"That"s what it"s all about," she said.

Her personal doctor and his wife help make the hats possible. The couple purchased all of the yarn that the group uses. The Newcomers have made hundreds of hats and plan to always give them away for free.

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Source: http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/local/2015/11/17/group-knits-hands-out-hats-to-moffitt-cancer-patients/75949230/