Cancer Survivors Meet to Celebrate Life

Releasing a flock of white doves, cancer survivors and their supporters picnicked together Sunday in a Glendale hospital’s garden to mark the day set aside for those who are beating the disease.

“This day is all about the spirit of life,” said Cindy Smith Idell, who coordinates the hospital’s programs for cancer patients. Commemorating the 13th annual National Cancer Survivors Day, Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s Comprehensive Community Cancer Center held its third annual garden ceremony.

The doves took roost in a Japanese plum tree planted by survivors in 1998, near a fir they placed in the garden a year ago. Although new survivors turn out for the picnic each year, their shared messages are the same, said hospital chaplain Janet Richardson.

“The common thread is love,” she said. “Love is what pulls the survivors through it. Love is what keeps the caregivers working with them through it all.”

Olivia Belo, 48, said it was love for her then-10-year-old son that gave her a new perspective on fighting the illness.

Belo was a nurse in the hospital’s oncology unit in 1994 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The diagnosis itself rang hollow. It was her reaction to the first chemotherapy session--pain, fatigue, hair loss--that brought to life her previously clinical understanding of the disease.

“I was not afraid,” Belo said. “I knew I had to keep fighting for my son because we have no other family here.”

At the beginning of the picnic, the 35 attendees were asked to write down what it means to survive cancer or to care for someone with a grave illness. Drawing from their experiences, the group crafted a composite statement: “You must live life to the fullest today because tomorrow you may not feel as good--or be here at all.”

National Cancer Survivors Day is held in more than 700 communities honoring the 8.4 million Americans who are surviving cancer, according to the nonprofit National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation.