About 40 cancer survivors and a few friends and family members who continue to provide support and care, gathered in the Taylorton Room at Days Inn on Saturday for a special survivors' retreat.
The event, organized through the auspices of the Relay for Life, which is coming up in June, focuses on the many services being offered to those living with cancer and those who have emerged from the battle with a clean bill of health but continue to be involved.
Mary Antonenko and Carol Cundall, two cancer survivors along with Canadian Cancer Society director of support services, Debbie Polischak, organized the Estevan retreat and called on this year's honourary chairwoman, Marlene Gaudry for a few words of encouragement and a few collective comments on her continuing journey through a battle with cancer.
"We bring you together so you can see you're not alone," said Polischak, in her opening comments to the group. She then called upon each person in the room to introduce themselves while providing brief histories of what they are going through, or what they have gone through, in dealing with cancer.
"We're hearing from 20-year survivors and beyond. We all want to be happy and healthy and that's why we're here," she said, before calling on Cundall and Antonenko to provide details of the upcoming Relay for Life and the Mini Relay for Life that will be organized at Bienfait's Weldon School on May 30, beginning with a survivors' lunch at 11 a.m. Each year an Estevan and area school plays host to a mini-relay to increase awareness of the main event. The two women said that promotional material regarding Canadian Cancer Society services and Relay for Life information will be available at the Estevan Shoppers Mall during the entire month of May.
Gaudry, the women said, was selected as this year's honourary chairwoman due to her positive attitude and spirit. Gaudry said she is still in the throes of treatments, but really wanted to get one of the Relay for Life survivor T-shirts.
"It's about putting one foot in front of the other," Gaudry said, while relating some humourous moments as well as some of the physical and emotional struggles one encounters while engaged in this unique battle.
Polischak provided a power-point presentation on the services the Canadian Cancer Society offers, which includes a partnership project that gives a patient a local person as a contact, someone who has already been down the path and has come out the other side.
There is also online assistance, she said and that is available at any time.
The retreats, such as the one in Estevan, are another avenue that is supported by the society, she said.
There is a volunteer driver program that can be used by all clients, especially those from rural Saskatchewan who need to go into Regina by bus. The volunteers pick them up at the bus depot in Regina and deliver them to the clinic or place they are staying and will take them back to the bus station after. She said volunteers racked up 74,000 kilometres last year serving 250 rural visitors to the cancer clinic in Regina alone.
There is a financial assistance program, up to $1,500 to help those meet transportation and accommodation costs when needed.
Support staff members help clients understand diagnosis, treatments, side effects, and timelines, to ease the anxiety. They also provide advocacy services to help those who may have fallen through the cracks in the system or who are dealing with an employer who may not fully understand the situation, or clients who are required to go out-of-province for additional treatment.
In the afternoon session, Dr. Toby Bridgeman, a naturopathic doctor from Weyburn, helped lead the group through a discussion on medicines they are dealing with and how they work and affect the body.
"My goal is to attempt to help these people in a general way, help them support their bodies while the body deals with cancer," he said in an interview.
"There are tools they can get that will give them a higher quality of life while they're in treatment," he said.
Bridgeman said about 20 per cent of his current client list are people dealing with cancer. He said if he can help them control the pain, lead them toward a healthier diet or exercise regime, in other words, to develop a holistic plan, he was happy to be part of the exercise.
"Then it becomes how can I make it work better, what is beneficial and what isn't working? We can develop a plan together, something they have confidence in and remove the confusing advice that is out there all the time all the crazy stuff that just muddles the issue. I also spend some time actually explaining the naturopathic process, so they're clear about what it can do to help them."
