by Bryce Reedy

On Saturday, Jan. 28, St. Mary’s Hospital hosted their first-ever Western Colorado Cancer Day in the Colorado Mesa University Ballroom.

The event was held to help those affected by cancer in honor of 13-year-old Delaney Clements, who passed away last spring, and was an inspirational figure in the Grand Junction community.

The idea for the event came when advisors for the survivorship program at St. Mary’s were reviewing evaluations from patients.

“Our advisory team was looking at the evaluations and saw there were a lot of consistencies in things that people living with cancer were struggling with,” St. Mary’s Survivorship Program Coordinator Debra Hesse said. “So we decided to do something about it […] and hopefully helping them to not just be a cancer survivor but a cancer thriver.”

Over 290 people registered for the event throughout Western Colorado. This included not only cancer patients, but friends and family of those affected.

“I came in because I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a little over six months ago,” Kea Bartels said.

The event began at 9 a.m. where attendees had the opportunity to go and talk with 26 different resource tables to find more information on various cancer-related topics. A majority of the tables were resources which the planning committee believed were helpful resources for cancer patients.

“Here in Western Colorado, here in Grand Junction there are resources, support groups, educational resources, vendors that could really be helpful to cancer patients, but they are not well known,” committee member Jim Comerford said. “[…] That is one of the fundamental purposes of the event is to bring resources to the people.”

Then there was a welcome speech by Hesse and a speech from Honorary Chairman Tillman “Tillie” Bishop. Those were then followed by two presentations on health when dealing with cancer.

The first presentation was called “Why Cancer Wellness Matters: Exploring how the way we live affects our health and well-being,” which was presented by Heather Leach.

The second presenter was Shari Oakland who presented “Fighting Cancer With A Fork,” which discussed sugar and cancer, diets and foods that can help or harm your healing.

“I think that both presentations hit the mark that we were after,” Comerford said. “[…] We want [cancer survivors] to know that there is good information and where they can get that information.”

Following the two presentations was the Keynote Survivor Story. This was told by Delaney’s mother Wendy Reece and focused on life as a caregiver for someone with cancer.

“[As caretakers] we have to take care of ourselves to ensure that we still have [an identity] when it is over,” Reece said.

“When we step into this new role, this new identity, it is a tightrope act that requires balance. We could become the nurturing person who unfortunately forgets to take care of ourselves.”

“This was my time,” Reece said when discussing how she would go for runs. “My personal time to reflect on the day ahead of us and clear my brain of the previous day. The time for me to take control of something when I didn’t have a lot of control of anything else.”

Following her story, she was given a standing ovation by those in attendance, and she was met by hugs from a number of individuals in attendance.

There were four breakout sessions for people to attend following the keynote speech. One dealt with helping your loved ones with cancer. One focused on preventing a cancer recurrence. Another was about living with uncertainty, and the final session talked about paying for your cancer care.

The sessions were chosen by the committee based on what they believed to be the topics that many patients had questions on.

“[They were] really driven by the patient evaluation forms,” Hesse said. “So they told us the things that they were looking for. […] Once we knew the things that people were struggling with, then it was just a matter of finding people that could address those subjects for them.”

Many found the sessions, stories, booths and interactions with others who are going through what they are to be a meaningful and informational experience.

“This has been very helpful to find some resources and listen to other people’s stories, and the presentations have been great,” Bartels said.

St. Mary’s hopes to continue to put on this event each year. They will also be posting both presentations, all the breakout sessions, as well as the Keynote Survivor Story on their website, www.stmarygj.org/livingfully, come March for anyone who was unable to attend or would like to get more information.