A Bridgend woman having chemotherapy for cervical cancer is making “grab bags” of essentials for other women about to start treatment — to be handed over on the very day they’re told it’s coming.
Maria Bailey, 55, designed her “One Grab Chemo Bag” — since christened “Bailey’s Bags” — after researching and packing her own before her first session at Singleton Hospital‘s cancer clinic in Swansea, where she is now having weekly chemotherapy and daily radiotherapy.
Inside goes everything she found herself needing: a fleece blanket, ginger tea, a neck pillow, pear drops, a bladder-capacity water bottle — and a backpack that can charge a phone from a power bank, because your treatment chair may not be anywhere near a plug socket.
Maria was diagnosed on 22 April after months of heavy bleeding — with clots she has described as “the size of baby seals”.
Her last cervical screening, five years earlier, had been clear, and her next wasn’t due until May this year — but when something felt wrong at the start of the year, she went straight to her GP rather than waiting. Cervical screening in Wales is offered every five years, and anyone with symptoms is urged to see their GP without waiting for their next routine appointment.
An initial fundraising page passed its £500 target within a day of launching — and Maria has since relaunched her GoFundMe page to make sure every donation goes directly into buying and packing the bags, at around £92 each.
The idea has already travelled: staff at Velindre, Cardiff’s specialist cancer centre, have told her they love it — and Maria hopes to extend the bags to men going through chemotherapy and radiotherapy for prostate cancer.
Between treatment sessions, Maria answered our questions — here she is, in her own words.
Take us back to your first chemo session — what did you wish you’d had with you that day?
“Because I love organising, I did a bit of research before my first sesh and created my One Grab Chemo Bag! It was a simple idea but I was ready and packed beforehand. I just wished that I didn’t have to buy it myself, especially being on the sick — and that’s where my simple idea came about. I did think of donating my own bag after treatment, but thought I would like to help more than one person.”
What goes into a bag — and is there one item that means the most?
“All the items are on my GoFundMe page but, gathering feedback from the brave ladies at the Cancer Clinic in Singleton, more items are being added — a medicine organising box, and a fold-up portable fan, especially in this weather!
“I think for me, it was the backpack’s ability to charge devices via a power bank, as your chair may not be by a plug socket. Also my neck pillow, pear drops and water bottle — truth be told, everything in there is invaluable.”
You want to hand these over on the day women are told treatment is starting — why that exact moment?
“I feel tangible support helps massively, and I know from personal experience — I just had to rock up on the day without thinking about or buying what I thought I needed. It took another worry out of my over-worried mind!”
What would you say to women about knowing their own bodies and pushing for answers?
“My clear smear was five years ago and I was due another in May this year. I knew something wasn’t quite right at the beginning of this year, so popped off to my doctor’s at The New Surgery in Pencoed, who was brilliant — she was never dismissive and got the ball rolling very quickly to investigate. I realise how lucky I am that it wasn’t dismissed as being usual ‘women problems’ and she took me seriously.”
What’s the response been like — from other patients, and from the staff at Singleton?
“Every single person I have spoken to — from the funny characters who drive me to and from hospital, the ambulance volunteers, the girls and guys in radio, and of course the brave ladies who put up with me babbling with enthusiasm about this — have said it is a simple but brilliant idea! The patients I have spoken to all said the same: they didn’t know what to take in with them, like me, but if they’d had this beforehand it would have been a great help. I recently met the amazing staff at Velindre, who loved the idea too.”
If someone reading this was diagnosed this week, what would you want them to know?
“My phone number? They could ask me anything and I would give them an honest, down-to-earth answer to all the many questions they may not think to ask. If that was not possible, I would say: you are really in the best hands when the treatment starts, keep positive — and you are not alone.”
Donations to Bailey’s Bags can be made via Maria’s fundraising page.
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I’m so incredibly proud of my twin sister. Whilst battling cancer she thinks of others.