After discovering the differences in acquiring medical equipment, Jaqui Joys started up the Lending Cupboard to connect people with items quickly and for free.
Since launching the Lending Cupboard last year, she says she’s amazed at the response.
“We’re open three days a week, and over the past year we’ve inventoried 1,500 pieces of equipment and we’ve had close to 1,200 people walk through,” she said.
Interestingly, between 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the people obtaining equipment through the organization are from the rural communities, like Lacombe, that are found between Edmonton and Calgary.
Joys began her quest to help people after her husband, Alan, was sick and required a second bed. The insurance company said it would take up to a month for them to get the equipment they needed.
After a bit of searching, Joys was given the name of a man who had been gathering equipment, which he would lend out to people who needed it.
"We had a bed within 24 hours. My husband died two weeks later, so we wouldn't have had the equipment if we had waited for the insurance company," said Joys.
She moved back to Alberta, with 5,000 pounds of equipment given to her by Fred Kingsmill, who had provided her with the bed for Alan through the Masonic Lodge. She started AJ's Loan Cupboard in Alan's hometown of Medicine Hat, then decided to come north to Red Deer.
"I checked with the Red Cross and home care to see if they were offering a service in Red Deer, and they weren't," she said.
The Lending Cupboard has a range of equipment -- from wheelchairs and crutches to items for knee surgery patients. They are also looking to get special equipment for bariatrics, which would be able to support patients up to 500 pounds or 600 pounds.
Joys says while the demand is high, getting the equipment isn't always easy, and the Lending Cupboard depends greatly on donations, both in equipment and money.
"Because we're private, we don't qualify for any government funding, so donations are something we need. We can't let things fall to the wind with how we operate," she said.
Volunteers help out in a variety of ways, from sorting the donations to helping their clients to fixing or cleaning the equipment coming in. Joys estimated between 70 to 80 per cent of the equipment is recycled, and they are constantly repairing or upgrading the pieces.
Joys says the most important things for people to know is that borrowing the equipment is absolutely free and people don't have to wait to qualify. They can also hold onto them for as long as they need.
"Anybody can come in," she said.
Right now equipment can be delivered to people within Red Deer and the immediate surrounding areas, and Joys says they hope to expand to the outlying communities, like Lacombe or Rocky Mountain House or Innisfail, in the future.
