Non-Profit Tidies Up After Cancer Patient

HOUSTON - Their motto is "making a difference one home at a time." Their mission is helping women with cancer, by doing a simple task: cleaning their home.

Fighting cancer is difficult enough, but living with it is even tougher. That’s where the “ Cleaning for a Reason ” foundation steps in. The nation-wide nonprofit offers free professional housecleaning and maid services to improve the lives of women undergoing treatment for cancer.

Carol Strickland is a high school math teacher, a wife, a mother and she's undergoing chemo for 2 types of breast cancer.

“The first 3 months of chemo I was sometimes so tired I could not even get up off the bed, I could get from the bed to a chair maybe,” said Carol.

The last thing Carol wants to do is clean her house.

“This round of chemo is a little bit better, I can get around more but going to work all day wears me out. What I want to do when I get home is take my shoes off and sit down and that’s all I want to do for the rest of the evening,” said Carol.

With the help of the “Cleaning for a Reason" foundation and one of its partners here in Houston, " The Home Keepers ", Carol can do exactly that without paying a cent.

“It does help with my healing and stress level because I do have a lot of stress. I’ve had a lot of stress over insurance issues, work issues and I’m a teacher so now we have budget issues so now I have a lot of stress with a lot of other things so not having to think about dealing with my house definitely takes stress off me and allows me to focus on what I need to focus on,” said Carol.

"The Home Keepers" President, Julie Parish said she's had the privilege of helping women like Carol since 2007.

"In the past 3 years, we have helped over 15 women and it’s about $10,000 worth of free cleaning. We need other professional cleaning services to join in and be partners. Here in Houston we only have 9 services that are active and we can only help so many,” said Julie.

That's why Carol Strickland feels very fortunate.

“They have been wonderful. I’ve never before had my house cleaned so just to have my whole house cleaned at one time is fabulous and to not have to think about it. I could probably do 1 room, 1 bathroom but that’s about it. It’s been very spoiling to me to have someone clean everything top to bottom and they do an excellent job,” said Carol.

Both cancer patients and cleaning companies must apply on the "Cleaning for a Reason" website.

Online Resources (non-mobile):
> The Home Keepers
> Cleaning for a Reason