Charlotte Maxwell Clinic

PictureCMC has over 200 volunteer practitioners providing free integrative cancer care.

"You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine.”
--Tim Minchin (songwriter, director, comedian)

Charlotte Maxwell Clinic (CMC) has been serving women diagnosed with cancer in the Bay Area since 1991. With the help of their extensive professional health practitioner volunteers, CMC provides free health services like acupuncture, herbs, and massage therapy to compliment their patients’ Western medicine.  Side effects of cancer treatment such as nausea and fatigue have found relief using alternative treatments, which as most of us are aware, health insurance doesn’t cover.

From CMC’s website:
 
Over our 25-year history, CMC has successfully eased the burden of cancer for thousands of low-income women receiving their cancer treatments in county hospitals and clinics. A critical factor in fulfilling our mission is the fact that we so quickly learned that we could not succeed if we provided integrative cancer care in a vacuum that ignored the burden of daily life among underserved women. Hunger, unstable housing, and other urgent socio-economic needs can quickly derail the course of cancer treatment—increasing the risk of progression or recurrence. We are grateful that the CMC community so quickly realized that even the best integrative medicine would fail if our clients remained unhoused or unfed. As a result, we have a strong, proactive, on-site social services program that is just as essential to healing as the remarkable integrative medicine we provide.
 
The clinic is named for Charlotte Maxwell, a force of nature who lived her life as an agent for positive change. When Ms. Maxwell was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1987 she realized she needed a variety of health practitioners beyond the conventional western medical doctors. Having spent her early adult life as a social worker, and later in creating fair and accessible health care for all, Charlotte realized the need to be creative and proactive when she received her cancer diagnosis. She brought together a team of talented women health practitioners. Some specialized in Chinese herbal medicine, some were acupuncturists, others were homeopathic practitioners, and still others massage therapists.  As her illness progressed she turned to hospice care. Having these additional caregivers made all the difference for Charlotte.  Though Charlotte died in 1988, what she began continued.  Charlotte’s original team saw the value of their work and started the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic. 
 
This compassionate group of women who cared for Charlotte knew there were many under-served women with cancer who could benefit from integrative cancer care but would not have access to such treatments. Out of their experience, foresight, and passionate belief in complementary integrative medicine, the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic was born. To this day, the Clinic provides integrative cancer care, safety-net social services and health education to low-income women with cancer.
Click here for more information on CMC.