Cancer patients and caregivers affected by this weekend’s snow storm and power outages can get information on resources for food, shelter, transportation and medical assistance by calling the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345. Cancer information specialists, including oncology nurses, are available to answer calls 24 hours a day, every day.

Zana Baruch, the cancer society’s area director of health initiatives, said one of the biggest challenges has been the lack of transportation for patients to get to their treatment. Hundreds of volunteers currently help patients get to their treatment, but the cancer society needs drivers throughout the state who can take patients to their treatment. Volunteers must have a car, safe driving skills and one free morning or afternoon a month. To learn more, call the society at 1-800-227-2345.

Arielle Levin Becker covered health care for The Connecticut Mirror. She previously worked for The Hartford Courant, most recently as its health reporter, and has also covered small towns, courts and education in Connecticut and New Jersey. She was a finalist in 2009 for the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists, a recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the third-place winner in 2013 for an in-depth piece on caregivers from the National Association of Health Journalists. She is a 2004 graduate of Yale University.

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