Breast Cancer Patients Find Buddies

January 28, 2011 9:36 AM

(Source: CBS4)

MIAMI (CBS4) — If you go through an illness, a friend or family member may say they know how you feel.

But many breast cancer patients will tell you the only people who really know how they feel are other breast cancer patients

In today’s Komen for the Cure – a program offered at Baptist Hospital brings breast cancer patients together so they can help each other.

“A lot of laughing and joking and hugging.”

That’s how Marilyn Van Houten, a breast cancer patient, described her experience at the hospital.

That’s because in 2005 she joined Your Bosom Buddies Support Group.

She had triple negative breast cancer which makes her treatment more difficult.

“I felt like I needed all the support I could get and then some.”
Every newly-diagnosed woman who joins gets a buddie bag and a mentor.

Marilyn became a mentor so she could return the favor.

Ellie Orosa was married and had an adult daughter when she found out she had breast cancer.

She knew she needed some guidance.

“I wasn’t thinking logically. I couldn’t really concentrate on anything.”

So she reached out to the program.

“I went there feeling kind of like, oh man, this is going to be depressing,” admitted Ellie.

Instead she found Marilyn.

“I was very fortunate to find a friend, a sister, somebody that I knew had my back.”

Ellie worried her life would never be the same.

“It is the same. And in some ways its better, because I made friendships that I know are going to last a lifetime.”

Find out more about a buddie for your mentoring program or the Bosom Buddies Support Group here.

For more information about a buddie for you breast cancer mentor program clickhere.

Friday, January 28, 2011