Cancer support group branches out on Facebook
As a cancer survivor, Lois Thacker has turned time and again to the Survive and Thrive support group at Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport for support.
She has gone to weekly meetings to share her experiences with fellow group members who have walked in her shoes. And now she can turn to those same people any time of any day, 365 days a year – through Facebook.
“I go to our meetings almost every Tuesday night,” said Thacker, a three-year survivor of breast cancer. “But when the idea of a Facebook page came up, we were all for it. Some who weren’t on Facebook got into it just because of our page. I think it opened up a whole new kind of thing for a lot of us; we’re able to stay in touch more and pass along information.
“I go there every day.”
Kathy Visneski, oncology clinical nurse specialist at Holston Valley and the organizer of support groups, said the Facebook site serves all cancer support groups at Holston Valley – which includes not only Survive and Thrive but also support groups for survivors of breast cancer and prostate cancer.
“I wanted to reach a group of people our support groups weren’t reaching, and social networking is where it’s all going,” Visneski said. “I saw this as a platform where we could share all sorts of information that can provide support to our group members. It’s a way where people can keep up with each other, and I can also put up links to things – new studies about cancer, new treatment therapies – that people might find interesting.”
So Visneski and the support group members continue to connect with each other through weekly and monthly face-to-face meetings – and they also connect through cyberspace. She makes it a point for the Facebook page to be informative – and also uplifting through frequent photo uploads. Visitors can find Survive and Thrive at www.facebook.com/surviveandthrive.
“We have sad nights at our meetings – I won’t tell you we don’t,” Visneski said. “But we have a lot of fun, too. We have many uplifting nights, and I’m trying to capture that in photos, to show the spirit of our group, so people can see the page and see that our meetings are an OK place to go for support and to be uplifted. You can have cancer and still be happy.”
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