October 17, 2001
Cancer survivors share stories
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Celebrating their survival, more than 100 women gathered together Saturday for the 13th Annual Recover Plus Program.
The all-day conference was held at the Waterfront Conference Center and featured speakers, a healthy lunch, shopping and a fashion show. The most important time for many, however, was the chance to reach out and network with other women who have survived breast cancer.
"Our goal is always to provide education, outreach and support for women who have survived breast cancer," said Ruth Ann LaMott, a breast cancer survivor and one of the conference's organizers. "This is also a way for women to network with each other."
Barbara Cunningham of Traverse City attended the conference to find support and gather information. Just 39, Cunningham is a cancer survivor. Diagnosed a year after her second child was born, Cunningham had just weaned her when she found a lump in her breast. Suddenly she faced a mastectomy and reconstruction - plus a quick lesson in the language of cancer and its treatment.
Surrounded Saturday by women of all variety of ages and stories, she found comfort in the shared experiences and triumphs.
"It is a real empowering experience to hear the other women's stories, since I am just a year and a half out," she said. "What was shocking to me from my experience was that there was a number of women in their 20s and 30s around here with breast cancer."
At the other end of the survival spectrum, Marie Godfrey is nearing her 82nd birthday. Cancer free for the past 19 years, Godfrey helped organize early Recover Plus programs and has attended every year.
"These programs have meant a lot to me because I can see and talk to other women," she said. "Everybody who comes is real upbeat and smiling, they all talk to each other and share."
This year's program featured Mary Raymer, a social worker and marriage and family therapist spoke in the morning about body image and sexuality after breast cancer. Registered dietitian Diana Dyer from Ann Arbor spoke in the afternoon about her personal story, having survived cancer three times. Dyer also shared her personal and professional research to find a multi-faceted approach that will help cancer survivors beat the odds of a recurrence.
Dyer first had cancer when she was six months old in 1950. After successful treatment with radiation, she found herself decades later battling breast cancer at the age of 34. When she went into remission that time, she naively thought she had paid her dues.
Finding another lump in 1995, Dyer said she was very angry and disillusioned.
"It was like a nightmare I could not wake up from," she said.
While undergoing a standard treatment regimen, Dyer began researching alternative and complementary approaches. She was determined to improve her odds of having another recurrence of cancer. Questions to her oncologist brought a lukewarm answer of improving diet and exercise, with an admonition that she was a dietitian, she should know what to do.
"At that point, I had to pause and look at what I did know and what I believed," she said. "If I believed that you are what you eat, it was like throwing down a personal and professional gauntlet for me. I had to look myself in the mirror and realize that even a registered dietitian can improve her diet."
Dyer shared her approach to fat intake, meat consumption, fast food, supplements, soy products, teas, fruits and vegetables with the audience. She also said she began practicing meditation and yoga, exercising every day and increasing her sense of spirituality.
While it took her more than a year, she devised an approach she believes will help her prevent another cancer recurrence. She documented her journey in a book and nutritional discoveries entitled "A Dietitian's Cancer Story," the proceeds of which she donates to research on nutrition and cancer prevention for survivors.
"I reviewed scientific literature, read everything people gave me, called researchers, attended conferences to come up with a plan," Dyer recalled. "Virtually everything that has been done in studies is for primary prevention, not much for helping cancer survivors."