We asked Irene how critical Hope Connections was to her, after she was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Here’s what she said:
“Like a 10 out of 10. It was absolutely critical. I don’t know what I would have done without Hope Connections and the people there.”
I just really needed the emotional support. I needed to be connected with other people who were going through the same thing that I was going through…And honestly, I never thought that I would gonna get cancer. I honestly thought, that that was something that happened to other people. And I didn’t really have any friends who had had cancer before and so I literally thought that a cancer diagnosis was like, I just thought, death and I was gonna die in six months. And none of these things were true. And the people that I connected with at Hope Connections, they gave me hope, they gave me support, they gave me empathy. And actually, you know what? I didn’t get that from a lot of other places, and that’s why Hope Connections was so important to me.”
We asked Irene what was particularly meaningful about Hope Connections:
“Well, one of the things that … I said that I tried some other support groups and I remember one of the other support groups that I tried, there were like 20 or 30 people in the group and everyone was sitting in this big circle and it was really difficult to hear everybody and then there were just so many people. And at the Hope Connections support groups there were only be like five people. So, yeah, I am kind of, I am a little shy and I’m not that comfortable, in large groups, but I’m a lot more comfortable in small groups and the Hope Connections group was small enough, that it was easy to talk to people and be open….(T)he facilitator I had most, was Naomi, and she was just amazing. She really kept everybody on track and make sure, everyone got a chance to speak and everyone there was just so compassionate and caring and empathetic and supportive.”
We asked Irene what else she learned at Hope:
“I really, really depended on that support group for a long time. And then, I also really like the nutrition programs at Hope Connections, because another thing that you read about cancer, another one of the best ways to prevent cancer besides exercise, is to eat healthy. And Hope Connections nutrition program helped me make that change. I remember, there was a nutritionist who came and did a seminar and she was really great. And that same nutritionist led tours of Whole Foods groceries store and she’d show us what to eat and what to avoid. And so, those were really helpful.”