MOSES LAKE - When it seems cancer has left someone with nothing, sometimes a gift as simple as a quilt can mean everything.

Just ask Cindy McClure.

Last spring, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

After a visit to the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation in Moses Lake, McClure was given a quilt to take with her to chemotherapy sessions in Spokane.

"It was comforting," she said. "The colors were pretty. Somebody definitely took some time to do this ... There's laces on it, there's different colors of fabric, there's denim, and it's just warm and it's comforting."

Max Hansen and Mel Neal are the pair responsible for McClure's quilt, as well as hundreds of other quilts given out by the cancer foundation.

Over three years, they've donated more than 300 quilts to the cancer foundation, estimates Neal. They have also donated quilts to kidney dialysis patients.

Neal owned a quilt shop in Grand Coulee for 20 years. As people started driving to bigger cities to buy fabric and supplies, Neal decided to close the shop, but he retained some of the quilting equipment.

The pair started taking their quilts around the state at craft shows. But the constant travel necessary to attend such shows proved grueling, said Neal.

Three years ago, they started making quilts and donating them to the cancer foundation.

"It makes me feel good," said Hansen. "We've had people that get a quilt and you would think we gave them a million dollars or something."

Every once in awhile, she'll bump into someone that received a quilt around town, although they usually never meet the recipients of their quilts.

She remembers meeting one quilt recipient at a yard sale.

"He was at the yard sale, walked up to us and gave us a big hug," she recalled.

"(There's) a lot of other things you could be doing, but they're not as rewarding as doing this," said Neal. "We have letters, cards from people thanking us. We get a phone call now and then."

A large part of their motivation for making the quilts is the comfort it brings to the patients, said Neal. Many patients are bussed to Wenatchee for chemotherapy treatment.

"The minute they get on that ... bus for the first time they're scared as hell," he said. "They don't know what's going to happen. And somebody walks up and says, 'Here's a free blanket.' It breaks the ice and it makes them feel a little bit better."

The quilts are made from a variety of materials, but one fabric they rely on is denim in the form of donated jeans.

At one time, they had more than 200 pairs of jeans littered throughout their house. Now they're down to about 50 pairs.

People often donate jeans for the quilts. They receive kid sizes to size 54 jeans, said Neal. Oftentimes they'll shop for jeans at yard sales, only to have the seller give them up for free after they hear what they'll be used for.

Neal cuts the jeans up, then sews them into blocks before passing them on to Hansen who does some of the more detail-oriented work.

"Max and  Mel have donated many quilts over the last couple of years and have been well received by our patients," stated Kayla Stoker, marketing director for the cancer foundation. "Max and Mel are some of the most generous people that I know of. They are always sensitive to the patients' needs and strive to make quilts that the patients will enjoy."

Although McClure has never met Hansen or Neal, she knows they understand what cancer patients go through, she said.

"It meant a lot," she said. "It still means a lot and they know that people like myself going through stuff, things that you can't control, when there's something that makes you smile and makes you feel good, it makes it all okay, or easier to get through."

She's impressed that they make quilts when they don't know who they're going to, she said. She had planned to send a thank-you note, but didn't have a chance while she underwent treatment, she said.

"But thank you doesn't seem to be enough," she said. "And again, it's for people that they probably don't even know, but it means a lot to those of us that receive."

Hansen and Neal can always use donations of thread, fabric and colored jeans. Donations can be brought to the cancer foundation's new office at 1031 W Broadway Ave.