kabarsula Dealing with her own scare with breast cancer helped Townsend resident become survivor advocate: ‘I had a calm come over me’ bandar SLOT INDONESIA

So many people have either suffered with breast cancer or known someone close to them who has dealt with the affliction.

A parishioner of St. Joseph in Middletown, Lois Wilkinson has seen the scary-but-also-manageable disease from every angle.

More than two decades ago, Wilkinson was working as a manager of a physician’s office when she became concerned that she would need to be checked for breast cancer. Two days before Thanksgiving in 2002, she had a biopsy. Being employed by doctors, she knew how the process would go and just like everyone else she waited for results. A phone call came while she was at work in the office.

She learned it was a positive test result and surgery would be necessary. She told her boss, who encouraged her to take the rest of the day off.

“I drove to Holy Cross Church in Dover and went in and prayed,” she said. “I just had a trust in God. I had a sense that he was going to help me. Through my faith, he was going to help me. I just put it all in his hands. His hands and the doctor’s hand.

“I had a calm come over me that I was going to be OK.”

It was.

And new doors opened for Wilkinson, a Townsend resident, as she encountered Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, a nonprofit that empowers communities by raising awareness of breast health issues through survivorship support services, outreach, and education, to facilitate the early detection and treatment of breast cancer. Before long, she was working for the group running its peer mentor program in the Dover office, a one-one-one support program for people diagnosed with breast cancer, she said.

October is breast cancer awareness month, an annual campaign to educate and increase awareness. It’s another chance for survivors to share their story.

“We have people that are multiple years of survivorship,” Wilkinson said of the support program. “And they come and they help with people that are newly diagnosed. To help them know what it’s like to go through chemo, lose their hair.”

Wilkinson retired three years ago as director of survivorship for Kent and New Castle County. She stayed with the group and is now part-time with “Nurture with Nature” program. It’s a support program in nature.

“Every month, we have one or two outings, we go to a nature center, hike, bike, boat ride, climb a light house. In wintertime we make Christmas stuff, centerpieces. Everything we do has something to do with nature.

“It’s calming and soothing.”

The group of survivors meets at St. Joseph’s the second Wednesday of every month from 5:30-7 p.m. at the parish. It’s a free program aimed at giving encouragement to anyone dealing with breast cancer.

Through her own struggle with breast cancer, she has learned to overcome the worry and concern while encountering and helping others who have dealt with the same.

“I got stronger in my faith,” she said. “Thanking God for having saved my life, it just brought me deeper to my faith. God helped me through a difficult situation and he made me a stronger person as a result of it.”

“A breast cancer conversation” is a free program held at St. Joseph’s in Middletown and open to anyone diagnosed with breast cancer. Join other breast cancer survivors for encouragement, support, fellowship, friendship, knowledge and hope. Contact Lois at [email protected].