"How I ached to talk to another woman who had the same experience and come through it, and so counsel, and reassure, and understand. But so such woman was available!"
Flashback to 1952 and to a woman named Terese Lasser. Like too many women many of us know, she was currently battling breast cancer. Lasser says she felt that the physical aspect of breast cancer was only half the battle - the mental and emotional tole it took was devastating. Determined that no woman should ever feel the same way she did, she took it upon herself to be a resource to other local women facing breast cancer as well.
And so to kickoff our Mission Monday series and also in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are starting with Reach To Recovery. Reach to Recovery is one of the many services offered by the
American Cancer Society to cancer patients and their families. Reach to Recovery is a mentoring program for potential, current, and post-breast cancer patients. While medical staff provide an amazing team to help battle the disease, finding mental and emotional support can be a challenge for many patients.
It is designed to offers these people a mentor - someone who has personally been in the same shoes as the people. They, like Lasser did, know what is it like to go through the diagnosis, chemotherapy, radiation, and so much more. They have climbed the same mountains, faced the same news, and pondered the same decisions - and now, as survivors, they can offer support and be a shoulder to lean on for these women and men.
The volunteers are available in person or through the phone, by day or by night, to both the patient as well as their family. They are trained to offer emotional support and advice on issues on everything from an initial diagnosis to the decision of a mastectomy to the excitement and joy of receiving an all-clear diagnosis. Sometimes, having someone in the non-medical world can be just what a patient needs. When things seem the hardest, sometimes just having someone to talk to and can say they have been there is just what someone needs.
And so, 63 years late, Reach to Recovery is a flourishing program - available to both men and women in all 50 states and multiple countries. All striving to be a community and support system for those that need it, and to serve as a reminder that cancer does not define anyone - just because someone needs a hand-up does not mean they are any weaker than the cancer, if anything it means we are bigger because of our ability to join together and stand to it.
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| Through the American Cancer Society's Reach to Recovery program, cancer survivor Valarie Jansen, right, has been providing one-on-one support to Brenda Davis, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and again in 2008. http://blog.mlive.com/kalamazoo_gazette_extra/2008/10/pairing_patients_with_survivor.html |
"For more information about this program or any other programs, please contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-277-2345 or visit cancer.org
With RELAYlove,
(your favorite blog manger)
Maria Wnorowski
