Nancy Burgard leads a weekly yoga class for cancer patients and their family members. (West Life photos by Larry Bennet)

Gathering Place helps cancer patients deal
with stress, loneliness of diagnosis
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published Dec. 3, 2008

Most people seem to be dealing with increasing levels of stress these days due to work, family issues or the economy.

But few problems in life can match the stress of being diagnosed with cancer.

Kathy Hopkins knows that. The Fairview Park resident has been dealing with an inoperable brain tumor for a year and a half.

While she was receiving chemotherapy treatments last summer at the Cleveland Clinic, she heard about an organization that offers ways to lessen the stress of living with the disease.

The Gathering Place, a nonprofit organization based in Beachwood, had been providing support programs to individuals with cancer and their families since 2000.

Hopkins, 62, began attending support programs there last summer. But, like many Westshore residents, she found traveling to the East Side an inconvenience.

Fortunately for Hopkins and other Westshore cancer patients, The Gathering Place opened a 5,000-square-foot facility in Westlake in October. Like the Beachwood location, the facility at 800 Sharon Drive will offer yoga classes, support groups, art and music therapy classes, and special lectures.

The new Westlake location is rented from Youth Challenge, a nonprofit that provides recreational activities to children with physical disabilities.

The goal, program director Ellen Heyman said, is to provide a place for cancer patients that is welcoming, supportive and safe.

“We really designed the program to address unmet needs,” Heyman told West Life.

“It takes a lot of courage for people to come here,” Heyman said, “because when they walk through the doors, they’re acknowledging that they have cancer. And also that they need help.”

Some program participants have told Heyman that they spent several days or weeks thinking about coming, or even driving past the building before coming in for the first time, she said.

Hopkins, who takes part in yoga and art therapy classes, said she’s glad she came to The Gathering Place.

The yoga classes, she said, help her feel stronger and calmer.

“It relaxes you,” she said. “The breathing is an important part of it.”

Doing yoga helps move the oxygen throughout her body to every pore, she said.

The art therapy classes are a lot of fun and similar to a support group, she said, “except that we’re busy making things.”

“We all chit chat,” she said of the group programs, adding that participants share their stories and tell what they’re doing, and what they can’t do as well.

Coming to The Gathering Place also makes her feel not so alone, she said.

“It breaks up your day,” she said. “And you’re with other people, not just the dog.”

All programs and services are offered free of charge, said Kristen Austin, director of community outreach for The Gathering Place.

“It’s not just for the person who’s been diagnosed, but for the entire family,” Austin said.

The staff includes specialists who work with children who have a parent or sibling fighting the disease. A children’s playroom is located near the entrance to help make children and their families feel welcomed, Austin said.

Katie Maynard, medical librarian at The Gathering Place, discusses library resources with Louise Sage, a volunteer and cancer survivor.

A big part of The Gathering Place’s mission is education. The Westlake facility includes a lending library staffed by a medical librarian who has been trained to assist patients struggling to understand treatment options such as chemotherapy.

In addition to the yoga classes, messages, reiki and reflexology services are offered by message therapists who donate their time to The Gathering Place.

Many people take solace in the camaraderie in being with people who have faced the diagnosis.

“Some people come here because they want to be connected to a buddy — someone who has already been through the experience of having cancer,” Austin said.

 The Gathering Place is 100 percent privately funded through fund-raisers, special events, donations and grants, Austin told West Life.

A considerable amount of the money needed to open the Westlake location came from two area women — Kathy Gable of Rocky River and Maureen Barrett of Sheffield Lake. In 2005, the two women founded Save Our Sisters, Save Ourselves after losing their younger sisters to cancer.

Barrett’s sister, Jeanne McGuire, attended programs at the Beachwood location, she said. Those programs, Barrett said, gave her peace in a non-hospital, non-clincal environment, she said.

Through the Mrs. Claus’ Closet fund-raiser last year, the two women raised $23,000 for The Gathering Place.

“We were motivated to try and do something in the community for people who have cancer,” Barrett said.

Barrett said she hopes the Westlake location will serve people who are unwilling or unable to travel to Beachwood.

Eileen Saffran, the organization’s founder and executive director, also hopes the new location enables an expansion of its services.

“Cancer knows no geographic bounds,” Saffran said, “and it is the hope of our board and our staff that having two locations will remove any geographical barriers and allow us to help more people touched by cancer.”

For more information about The Gathering Place, call the organization at (216) 595-9546, or visit its Web site at www.touchedbycancer.org.

On the Web:

• www.touchedbycancer.org.