Hope for cancer survivors

Page 10

A women's retreat that is to be held Oct. 17 to 19 at the Poundmaker/Nechi Institute in St. Albert is designed to give more than 40 Aboriginal women a chance to network, gain friendships and share their concerns as they live with cancer.

Eva Bareti, president of the Wahkotowin Society in Edmonton, said the three-day retreat is geared toward dealing with the effects of all types of cancer, and will offer participants support and information.

Bareti, who is a cancer survivor, had the disease more than 20 years ago. Since then she's worked with the Canadian Breast Cancer Network and numerous other programs.

She said the idea to hold the retreat came after she visited Aboriginal women in the hospitals who were diagnosed with breast cancer. She said that she found that many times the patients did not want to talk to the nurses and doctors about what they were dealing with because of their culture and the small communities they came from.

"They did not really want to share what they were going through because they did not know the people, so that is why I want this retreat to be for all Aboriginal women going through this disease," she said.

At the retreat the women will have an opportunity to not only share their fears and pain, but to take part in a number of fun things that will help them laugh or pamper themselves.

"I see as Aboriginal people we tend to laugh a lot, so we have entertainment... Reiki demonstrations, hair styling, manicures, foot massage, make-up demonstrations, traditional and cultural ceremonies." Also on the agenda is a Sunday church service and a sunrise pipe ceremony.

Bareti said that for the first time, the participants are encouraged to bring along their mothers, sisters or friends as a support person, so that they can go home and continue to support each other.

"I would also like to see the women go home and be a support to other women in the community. To be able to share, because many times I believe that when a person has cancer they feel very alone. They think that they are the only one going through this. That it is happening to only them," she said.

She is also hoping that someday the women who attend the retreat will host retreats in their communities and that men will someday have a retreat like this, where they will also be able to share and talk about the issues they face when diagnosed with cancer.

She says that she would be willing to share the society's name with them, because Wahkotowin means that we are all related, that we are all here in this world to help each other.

We spoke with Julie Robertson before the event. She is a singer with the group Creeative Harmony and a cancer survivor of seven years. She attended the first year and said that she really enjoyed herself while she was there. Robertson said living through cancer had been a hard battle, but she is grateful that she is still healthy and able to work.

"I've kept in contact with some of the women I met there. I felt like I was not alone at the retreat, because you are with all these women who are sharing their stories and I felt really good when I came out of there.

"Eva is an inspiration to me. She is a 25-year survivor of cancer and here she is 25 years later so it gives me hope too," Robertson said.