For thrivers and survivors

Emily Wolfe is celebrating one year of being cancer free by giving back. The Findlay woman plans to participate in all five of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day events this year, which means training to walk a total of 300 miles and raising $25,000 to help put an end to breast cancer. Locally, she's also reaching out to others who may be dealing with a recent diagnosis or are fighting the disease by starting a breast cancer support group. "It takes a village," Wolfe said. "That pertains to parenthood, but it pertains to life, too. You just can't do this alone. And I hope our support group will be there to tell you that you don't have to be." The first meeting of the Hancock County Breast Cancer Support Group for thrivers and survivors will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. April 4 at the Armes Cancer Center, 15990 Medical Drive South. Wolfe said Blanchard Valley Hospital and the cancer center are helping support the program. There has not been a breast cancer support group in several years, she said. The Findlay Area Breast Cancer Support Group, active since 2007, stopped meeting when COVID made its way to the area. That was before Wolfe was diagnosed in 2021 at the age of 29. She underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and then 35 radiation treatments. She also endured breast cancer implant illness and developed an autoimmune disease to the spacers she had in place with her reconstructive surgery. Wolfe and another survivor tried to start a support group while they were both undergoing chemo. They had only met a few times when the pandemic again closed the cancer center to outside meetings. But now that those restrictions have been lifted for a while, Wolfe said it's time to try again. "I think it's something that's needed. I think a lot of people need it. Every time I meet somebody new, that's what they tell me," she said. In preparing to start the group, Wolfe learned an important step is creating a mission statement. "So I've been thinking about that a lot, and I think our mission statement or mission idea is really going to be, 'I want to create a space where no one feels alone,'" she said. Some people claim they don't need any support, according to Wolfe. But there are still times when no one can truly understand what a breast cancer patient or survivor has been through. "As sympathetic as your family and friends can be, until you've been there you just don't really understand," she said. Wolfe said she's also told people that maybe it's not about getting support, but rather encouraging someone else. "Personally, I hit my one-year cancer-free mark in December. It was a huge burden lifted off of my shoulders, and it was a burden I didn't know I was carrying," she said. "I had been sick into my first year of survivorship so it was really hard for me to feel like I had ever really gotten that fresh start. So there was something about that one-year mark that's like, it's your birthday. You get to start over." Wolfe decided that the support group might help her do that. She reached out to Luminaries, a nonprofit which offers a one-year survivorship program. "They have planned out different practices for you — sleep, exercise, movement, mind space, gratitude," she said. "They have these different topics and they teach you how that has changed from your pre-cancer life to your post-cancer life, how that can look different simply because you had cancer." Wolfe said participants will learn about changes in their body due to chemotherapy and radiation. "They walk you through the scientific piece of why you need to make changes in your life and how they will benefit you," she said. Wolfe said topics from the program will be used as a basis for discussion. There will also be open conversation time for people to talk about their struggles, feelings and ask questions. Then there will be a time to focus on some form of "survivorshipness," said Wolfe. "I know that's not a word. Maybe it should be," she said. "It's something good that you can focus on that has to do with your health but doesn't really have to do with your cancer. It's about moving forward and stepping into the future." Laura Hendricks, founder of the Illinois-based Luminaries, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer, in 2018. "Laura is a survivor herself and shares her story and says that survivorship was the hardest part of her journey. That resonated with me a lot. Survivorship has been the hardest part of my journey," admitted Wolfe. She said the program has helped her make a fresh start and she wants to inspire others to do that as well. "I want to help people who also need that," she said. "I want them to know that they're not alone, that there are other people that feel this way and there're other people that are going through the same experiences and that it's OK — you're not alone." For more information, breast cancer thrivers and survivors can request to join Hancock County Pink Sisters on Facebook. Additional meetings will be held May 2, June 6, July 11, Aug. 1, Sept. 5, Oct. 3, Nov. 7 and Dec. 5.