For the second year in a row, Angela Bowman, owner of Unique You Hair & Nail Studio in Tamaqua, donated over 45 gift bags to cancer patients at the St. Luke’s Hospital-Miners Campus in Coaldale.

After her husband, Bill, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2018, Angela was left with idle hands. To occupy her mind, she put together gift bags for local cancer patients for Christmas.

Although her husband was deemed cancer-free in November 2019, Angela decided to continue the trend and create more gift bags for the then upcoming holiday.

On the first year, she worked from very few donations and mostly her own funds. For her 2019 project, she reported receiving a large amount of community support in her efforts, both monetarily and emotionally.

“When this started in 2018, it was more of a distraction,” she said. “This year, I got tons of help from my kids, my husband, and the community.”

She added that patients at the hospital seemed lonely when the holiday season came around. Reminiscing on his days at the hospital, Bill agreed.

“Most of them had buses taking them to and from the hospital. It wasn’t even family,” Bill said. “I know that I couldn’t have gotten through it without my family.”

The disease attacks more people than he thought but he realized just how many people it affected when he saw firsthand how crowded the waiting rooms always were.

“The thing they all need to remember is that they’ve got to stay positive,” he said. “If you stay positive, it can turn out well.”

To help put the gift bags together, their daughters aided in collecting items and their son helped to organize and put them together.

Juliana Bowman, one of the couple’s two daughters, posted on Facebook and asked her friends for donations. People messaged her and told her that they had things for her mom such as lotion and hand sanitizers.

“My friends knew what I went through and went to buy things for the cause,” she said.

Angela’s son, Tucker, a freshman at Tamaqua High School, added that for some people, it was their only gift.

Clinical manager of St. Luke’s Infusion Center, Sharon Oravec, said that the patients were especially grateful that people think of them while they’re getting their treatments.

“Some received puzzle games, drinks, candy,” Oravec said. “This helps them to be comfortable while getting their treatments, as some people are here 6, 7, 8 hours.”

Brittany Bowman, Angela and Bill’s eldest daughter, aided the effort by connecting with her coworkers about what her mom was trying to do. The people in her office were immediately on board with the project and contributed items such as tissues and mints.

“I didn’t even know what the mints were for until my dad told me,” she said. “They’re for the awful taste that the chemo leaves in your mouth.”

One gentleman, she reported, had lost his father to the same type of cancer her dad had but was glad to donate to those still alive and fighting the disease.

The family received more than enough donations to give to the people at the Infusion Center of St. Luke’s.

On Jan. 13, they took the remaining donations over to the hospital.

“The ladies at the hospital become your family,” Angela said. “They get the brunt of what people are feeling and I know I’ve cried my share of times with them. They’re just wonderful people.”

She reported that the nurses helped by distributing the gift bags to the patients who passed on well wishes and thanks to the Bowman family for their offerings.

Angela Bowman plans on continuing this as an annual tradition.