Cancer support group celebrates 15 years
Posted: 11/2/2009
By James Mulcahy
Carla Smith was a young lady when breast cancer took her mother. Devastated, she made detecting the killer in others her life's work.
The mammographer is also the founder and remains organizer of the Life After Cancer Support Group, which, for 15 years, has met monthly at Jewish Hospital Shelbyville. She started the group with the help of then-chaplain Randy Brown.
"I told Randy that I always wanted to start a support group because I always wished my mom had that," she said. "He helped me with making out objectives and all to present to administration. We had probably eight ladies who showed up that first night. While they liked the fellowship aspect, they came because they wanted to learn."
And they're still learning. About every other month, the group has a guest speaker. "It has really become an educational group as much as a support group," Smith said.
Smith came from Cape Girardeau, Mo. Her husband, Glen, got a job in Louisville, and the family chose Shelby County to live.
"We didn't want to live in the city, so we live out toward Bagdad," she said.
For 19 years, Smith has been doing mammograms at Jewish Hospital Shelbyville.
"Coming here was a good chance to specialize in mammography," she said. "Because of my mom, I had a passion for working with women. It's certainly an odd thing to do, and not everybody wants to do it, but for me, it makes sense. If anybody had ever told me I'd do this for a living, I'd have never believed it."
She rekindled her desire to paint five years ago. As part of Shelby Artists on Main, she has done several oil paintings over the past two decades. Several hang on the walls in the hospital's Imaging Center.
"Sue Duvall invited me to come to the gallery and start lessons," she said. "I thought, 'Yeah, I can do that,' even though I hadn't painted since high school. That's been a lot of fun for me. It was perfect timing for me because our daughter started driving; I always had to drive her everywhere (dance team and different activities)."
The glue
Renee Cunningham has been coming to the support group for several years. When she started coming, she didn't even know she needed support.
"I was 10 years into cancer," she said. "I understood what my role was then: to give hope."
Cunningham called Smith "the glue that holds all of us together."
"She never tires of taking care of business," she said.
Jewish Hospital Shelbyville CEO Michael Collins agrees.
"We have a huge focus here on worthwhile work," Collins said. "If you're mopping the floors or a physician working on a patient, it's all part of the process. I always think of Carla when I think about the passion. If you have passion for your work, for helping people, sometimes you get tired of helping people. I don't think Carla loses that. I think there's just something in her core -- maybe it's that personal story -- that keeps her full of that passion, particularly when it comes to the support group. She's always passion-filled. After 15 years, I would have gone home. She's not paid to do it."
Smith is humble, though.
"I get much more out of that support group than any amount of work I put into it," she said.
Holly Husband, public relations director at the facility, said patients often go out of their way to praise Smith's work.
"It is amazing -- we get this all the time," she said. "We're constantly watching our patient satisfaction. I can't tell you how many times over the last six months we have received a comment, either through the patient satisfaction company or that patients just stop and share a message that Carla is such a valuable part of our team. It's more than just her being a mammographer here, it's that full circle. It's added a whole dimension of the care we provide."
Community awareness
The support group also has a mission of raising awareness of breast cancer in the community. They have promoted the cause alongside the U.S. Postal Service when the familiar pink ribbon appeared on a stamp, and the women are in charge of the luminaries at the Shelby County Relay for Life every year.
"With the help of the schoolkids, we put all those bags out," Smith said. "My gosh, that's a chore, but it's a real good project for them for a little community awareness. We used to be a team and camp out, but everybody got past that."
Husband said educating young girls is important, too.
"I always try to hand out information to teenage girls, particularly the self-exams," she said. "I think mothers tend to forget to have this conversation with their daughters. A lot of times the moms haven't really gotten to the point where they have a mammography -- that baseline between 35 and 40. They are not accustomed to it, so they're not passing it on to their daughters."
Smith particularly likes the fact that, unlike her mother, breast cancer victims can support each other and better deal with the disease.
"One of the ladies told me that she didn't ever want to be afraid again when she went to her doctor," Smith said.
The mammographer is also the founder and remains organizer of the Life After Cancer Support Group, which, for 15 years, has met monthly at Jewish Hospital Shelbyville. She started the group with the help of then-chaplain Randy Brown.
"I told Randy that I always wanted to start a support group because I always wished my mom had that," she said. "He helped me with making out objectives and all to present to administration. We had probably eight ladies who showed up that first night. While they liked the fellowship aspect, they came because they wanted to learn."
And they're still learning. About every other month, the group has a guest speaker. "It has really become an educational group as much as a support group," Smith said.
Smith came from Cape Girardeau, Mo. Her husband, Glen, got a job in Louisville, and the family chose Shelby County to live.
"We didn't want to live in the city, so we live out toward Bagdad," she said.
For 19 years, Smith has been doing mammograms at Jewish Hospital Shelbyville.
"Coming here was a good chance to specialize in mammography," she said. "Because of my mom, I had a passion for working with women. It's certainly an odd thing to do, and not everybody wants to do it, but for me, it makes sense. If anybody had ever told me I'd do this for a living, I'd have never believed it."
She rekindled her desire to paint five years ago. As part of Shelby Artists on Main, she has done several oil paintings over the past two decades. Several hang on the walls in the hospital's Imaging Center.
"Sue Duvall invited me to come to the gallery and start lessons," she said. "I thought, 'Yeah, I can do that,' even though I hadn't painted since high school. That's been a lot of fun for me. It was perfect timing for me because our daughter started driving; I always had to drive her everywhere (dance team and different activities)."
The glue
Renee Cunningham has been coming to the support group for several years. When she started coming, she didn't even know she needed support.
"I was 10 years into cancer," she said. "I understood what my role was then: to give hope."
Cunningham called Smith "the glue that holds all of us together."
"She never tires of taking care of business," she said.
Jewish Hospital Shelbyville CEO Michael Collins agrees.
"We have a huge focus here on worthwhile work," Collins said. "If you're mopping the floors or a physician working on a patient, it's all part of the process. I always think of Carla when I think about the passion. If you have passion for your work, for helping people, sometimes you get tired of helping people. I don't think Carla loses that. I think there's just something in her core -- maybe it's that personal story -- that keeps her full of that passion, particularly when it comes to the support group. She's always passion-filled. After 15 years, I would have gone home. She's not paid to do it."
Smith is humble, though.
"I get much more out of that support group than any amount of work I put into it," she said.
Holly Husband, public relations director at the facility, said patients often go out of their way to praise Smith's work.
"It is amazing -- we get this all the time," she said. "We're constantly watching our patient satisfaction. I can't tell you how many times over the last six months we have received a comment, either through the patient satisfaction company or that patients just stop and share a message that Carla is such a valuable part of our team. It's more than just her being a mammographer here, it's that full circle. It's added a whole dimension of the care we provide."
Community awareness
The support group also has a mission of raising awareness of breast cancer in the community. They have promoted the cause alongside the U.S. Postal Service when the familiar pink ribbon appeared on a stamp, and the women are in charge of the luminaries at the Shelby County Relay for Life every year.
"With the help of the schoolkids, we put all those bags out," Smith said. "My gosh, that's a chore, but it's a real good project for them for a little community awareness. We used to be a team and camp out, but everybody got past that."
Husband said educating young girls is important, too.
"I always try to hand out information to teenage girls, particularly the self-exams," she said. "I think mothers tend to forget to have this conversation with their daughters. A lot of times the moms haven't really gotten to the point where they have a mammography -- that baseline between 35 and 40. They are not accustomed to it, so they're not passing it on to their daughters."
Smith particularly likes the fact that, unlike her mother, breast cancer victims can support each other and better deal with the disease.
"One of the ladies told me that she didn't ever want to be afraid again when she went to her doctor," Smith said.
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