WESTERN BUREAU – With their donation of a gas stove and a cylinder of liquid petroleum gas, the pharmacy staff at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay have made cooking for a Westmoreland senior citizen less of a chore.

Doris Lumley of Lemington District received the donation at the hospital on Wednesday. Lumley, who was unable to recall her exact age but who is believed to be over 65 years old, is an asthma patient at the 35 year-old hospital.

Pharmacy staff recently noticed that she was making an unusually high number of visits and sought to find out why.

“We asked her why she came so often and she told us that she was unable to cook at home, and she had to cook outside in the rain using wood fire, and then that triggers off the asthma,” said Princess Edmondson-Lee, a pharmacy technician.

The pharmacy’s staff members decided to help preserve the elderly woman’s health. They pooled a percentage of their salary and bought her the two-burner stove and cylinder of gas.

“We decided to present (the stove) to her and to tell her that we are not only here to fill prescriptions, we are here to help patients otherwise… That is why we decided to give her to stove,” Edmondson-Lee said.

Her coworkers, she added, were “We will try to help others, as long as we know about their needs. We will try to help them as best as we can,” she said.

Lumley, who has had trouble with asthma since the age of 19, was thrilled to receive her brand new stove.

“Yes, I feel nice. Mi going cook mi little pot soup when mi go home. Is mi good friend them give me dis (stove),” she told the Observer, smiling broadly.

Lumley said she is the mother of 14 children, three of whom are now deceased. As for the remaining 11, she said she had no clear idea of where they may be located.