Reach to Recovery

I have joined the Amercian Cancer Society and finished my training to become a Reach to Recovery Volunteer. I came home yesterday, after finishing my training, so excited about this program. This is a way to "give back" to other newly diagnosed breast cancer patients....to help someone over the rough spots and to lend a shoulder when necessary and an ear to listen.

For more than 35 years, the American Cancer Society Reach to Recovery program has helped people cope with their breast cancer experience. This experience begins when someone is faced with the possibility of a breast cancer diagnosis and continues throughout the entire period that breast cancer remains a personal concern. When people first find out they have breast cancer, they may feel overwhelmed, vulnerable, and alone. While under this stress, many people must also learn about and try to understand complex medical treatments and then choose the best one. Talking with a specially trained Reach to Recovery volunteer at this time can give a measure of comfort and an opportunity for emotional grounding and informed decision-making.

Volunteers are breast cancer survivors who give patients and family members an opportunity to express feelings, talk about fears and concerns, and ask questions of someone who is knowledgeable and level-headed. Most importantly, Reach to Recovery volunteers offer understanding, support, and hope because they themselves have survived breast cancer and gone on to live normal, productive lives.

Through face-to-face visits or by phone, Reach to Recovery volunteers give support for:
a. people recently diagnosed with breast cancer
b. people facing a possible diagnosis of breast cancer
c. those interested in or who have undergone a lumpectomy or mastectomy
d. those considering breast reconstruction
e. those who have lymphedema
f. those who are undergoing or who have completed treatment such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy
g. people facing breast cancer recurrence or metastasis (the spread of cancer to another part of the body)

Volunteers are trained to give support and up-to-date information, including literature for spouses, children, friends, and other loved ones. Volunteers can also, when appropriate, provide breast cancer patients with a temporary breast form and information on types of permanent prostheses, as well as lists of where those items are available within a patient’s community. No products are endorsed.

For those who know me, you know I have decried for months about the lack of services in Pasco. Well....that will now change. Another gal, from Miami, who was a Reach volunteer there, recently relocated to Pasco and will now become the Reach coordinator for West Pasco. We didn't have a coordinator till now....The North Pinellas Coordinator was pitching in and trying to cover Pasco and it's 400 plus requests this year for service. There is such a crying need for help here - hopefully we can get this program working for our needy West Pasco residents.