Thursday, April 13, 5 p.m., Orcas Community Church

— from Sue Lewis —

Cancer. The one word no one wants to talk about. If you were recently given this unexpected diagnosis, the last thing you might want to do is talk about it. Then it would become frighteningly more real. If you are years past a diagnosis and find yourself in the enviable place of being cancer free, you don’t want to talk about it because you want to be sure it stays behind you. No point tempting fate. Yet, in either extreme, and everything in the middle, the one thing that truly does help is talking about it.

If the process is new for you, meeting with others who have walked in your shoes and succeeded, will give you hope. You can see for yourself what survivorship truly looks like. And if you are the one on the winning side, you can reach out to others who are now where you once were. You can provide the encouragement they need to keep fear at bay. This is a win-win situation for both sides.

The Cancer Survivorship Group will meet on Thursday, Apr. 13 in the Community Church Fireside Room at 5 p.m. We are a monthly, no-cost, confidential support group. Wherever you are in the process, won’t you join us to help each other as we work through one of the most complicated of medical conditions?

For more information, please call Carol or Bogdan at (760) 212-8556.