Published: June 04, 2006 10:55 pm            

Cancer survivors celebrate victory

MEADS — The words “Cancer Club” might not sound like something one would want to be any part of.

However, to its members, its the greatest club in the world.

That was the message of Michael O’Neal, a business professor at renowned Georgetown University, who spoke at the 2006 Cancer Survivor’s Day, conducted at the El Hasa Shriner’s Lodge in Meads Sunday.

O’Neal, a cancer survivor himself, is perhaps better known as the founder of the Get Well Network, a company that provides interactive computerized patient education and entertainment for hospitals throughout the U.S.

The “Cancer Club,” as O’Neal called it, is like many others in that it has a password, member dues, honorary members and rewards and privileges, among other things.

The password, he explained, is the story each person afflicted with cancer has to tell.

O’Neal’s own story began more than six years ago, when, as a graduate student at Georgetown, he was diagnosed with cancer on his 28th birthday.

He had to undergo surgery to remove his stomach and a round of chemotherapy, a process which, fortunately, he said he hasn’t had to repeat in six years.

The dues, O’Neal explained, are the various medical experiences each patient goes through, from constant blood work to the distasteful liquids patients have to drink before X-rays.

“I think we’re all probably walking lab rats,” O’Neal said, receiving laughter from the more than 500 cancer survivors and family members gathered at Sunday’s celebration. “If you turned off the lights right now, we’d probably all glow in the dark.”

O’Neal also cracked wise about how many technicians he’s wound up with who seemed to be drawing blood for the first time on him.

That drew riotous laughter and nods of understanding from the audience.

“I believe that’s happened to me a time or two,” cancer survivor Violet Crisp, of South Shore, said as a quick aside to those sitting at her table.

O’Neal talked about the honorary members — the relatives and friends who helped each and every cancer survivor make it through their ordeal.

“These people have always had their capes and the “S” on their chest, but they’ve kept it up in an attic until they’ve really needed it,” he said. “I think there are a lot of superheroes in this room.”

The rewards and privileges, he said, are things like the birth of a child or grandchild, or a clean test result.

“This event here, today, is yet another victory for the Cancer Club,” O’Neal said. “The finest club in the world.”

Indeed, the “members” attending Sunday’s event did bear a sense of pride, camaraderie and support for one another.

“I just felt like I had to come,” said Almeda Caines, an Ironton woman who is in the fourth year of battling pancreatic cancer, or, as she refers to it, “the really bad kind.”

Caines said she felt obligated to attend the event in order to show her support for others in the same boat.

“I’ve been in remission for about the last year,” Caines said, unclasping herself from a hug with her oncologist, Dr. Vinay Vermani.

Vermani, who has attended the survivor’s event ever since it was started in 1988, was getting more hugs than he knew how to handle Sunday.

“It means a lot to me, to see these people,” Vermani said in a brief spare moment. “You know, cancer really is a different disease than diabetes or something like that.

“With cancer, you lose a lot of people. But every year the crowd here is getting bigger, and more people are surviving.”

This year’s event set a record for attendance, said Rachel Burnside, cancer resource coordinator for King’s Daughters Medical Center, which sponsors the local survivor’s day effort.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to see their doctors and to see friendly faces and bond,” Burnside said.

Vermani called the event a celebration of life.

“I know for some people here this might be their last year to attend,” he said. “But we don’t look at it that way. We celebrate each day of life.”

BEN FIELDS can be reached at bfields@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.

        

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