May 11, 2006

Cancer survivors Lara Bauer, left, and Jody Ferrar. Bauer is hosting the Yellow Springs Livestrong Day for cancer survivors and their caregivers on Wednesday, May 17.

By Lauren Heaton

As Lara Bauer and Jody Ferrar sat across from each other at The Emporium on Sunday talking about their experiences with cancer, they couldn’t keep from finishing one another’s sentences.

They sat close to the table, gesturing with their entire bodies and soon got to laughing about the not-so-funny issues that are so common among people and families dealing with cancer.

Their connection, rooted in a shared experience of the trauma and transformative growth that comes from fighting cancer, is one they hope to share with others at the Yellow Springs Livestrong Day celebration Bauer is hosting at The Emporium on Wednesday, May 17, from 6 to 8 p.m.

For the last year, Bauer said, she has slowly been warming up to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which is encouraging local groups to hold Livestrong Day events around the country to raise awareness about cancer survivorship issues.

At first Bauer said she saw the Armstrong Foundation, started by Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor and the world’s top cyclist, as a high-profile mainstream organization she didn’t want any part of. But she started reading on the organization’s Web site about survivor support and, she said, found herself in tears from emotions she had not allowed herself to feel during or after her illness.

“I was looking at their Web site saying to myself, ‘I’m a Yellow Springs person, I don’t join bandwagons,’ ” Bauer said. “But then I kept going back and thinking, ‘well, this is sort of cool,’ and now I can’t even deny how amazing this stuff is. It’s so helpful and necessary.”

The Livestrong event in Yellow Springs will focus on connecting cancer survivors and their caregivers, Bauer said. Participants can come to meet others, share stories, songs or poetry during the event’s open mic, and perhaps start a community support network for cancer survivors. The idea is to raise awareness, and if people seem interested, the group could continue to meet and focus on the needs of its members, Bauer said.

Meanwhile on that day in Washington, D.C., the Armstrong Foundation will lead 100 advocates from each state around the country to raise awareness on Capitol Hill about cancer-related issues, such as federal funding for cancer programs and providing equal access to quality care, faced by more than 10 million cancer survivors and their families in the U.S.

When Bauer and Ferrar met last year in Yellow Springs, Bauer was four years in remission from melanoma, and Ferrar was nine years in remission from uterine and vaginal cancer. Neither had talked to anyone in depth about how it felt to be a young mother facing an illness with uncertain ends. And neither had any idea how comforting it would feel to share openly, at length, their painful and unattractive memories and be wholly understood, Bauer said.

“Only now are you even able to talk about it, because when you’re through puking, you don’t want to talk about puke,” Ferrar said. “There’s that space of time that has to go by.”

“I didn’t really realize you don’t just move away or move beyond it — it’s so much a part of your life,” Bauer said. “And you don’t so much want it to go away, because you’re stronger for it. That’s the ironic beauty of my interactions with people who have had cancer.”

For the Yellow Springs Livestrong Day, Bauer has ordered 20 survivor’s notebooks from the Armstrong Foundation that are meant to support people who have or have had cancer, and she is hoping to have wristbands and other informational brochures to give away.

If people show interest, Bauer said, she also wants to continue to meet and eventually, to form a grassroots support group to help people with the vast array of issues from diagnosis and treatment to counseling, insurance and reentry into life posttreatment.

What Ferrar hopes to achieve from her connections is an understanding of how the intimacy of illness affects our closest relationships, she said. Her experience with cancer challenged her role as a mother, a wife and a friend, she said, and 10 years later she is still learning how to be those things not as a sick person but as a healthy person.

“Cancer provides an opportunity for growth, and you’ve got to walk out of there with something!” Ferrar said.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com