By John Burton
LONG BRANCH – The Cancer Support Community, which closed its Eatontown doors in April of this year, is getting another chance to assist cancer patients and their families.
“Let’s just say it’s being adopted by Monmouth Medical Center,” said Ilene Winters recently, founder of the Cancer Support Community of North Jersey Shore, who saw it cease operations due to financial difficulties.
According to Portia Lagmay-Fuentes, Monmouth Medical’s regional administrative director for cancer services, plans are for it to open as the Cancer Support Community at Monmouth Medical Center, with facilities at the medical center’s Long Branch and Lakewood campuses. It will operate under the auspices of Monmouth Medical Center and its parent company, Barnabas Health System.
The facilities are expected to commence operations in the first quarter of 2015 with a combined operating budget of approximately $300,000, Lagmay-Fuentes said.
Given the financial difficulty the Cancer Support Community experienced, which led to its closing, “To have an organization like Barnabas behind it I have to believe it’ll be a viable entity in perpetuity,” Winters hoped.
Like the former support community, which had been operating in Eatontown, these new iterations will continue the Cancer Support Community’s mission of providing programs and services to those battling and surviving cancer and their families, Lagmay-Fuentes noted, adding the programs will be available for free to participants.
The Eatontown facility had offered support groups and educational programs on financial matters related to health care, on nutrition and healthy living, as well as yoga, mediation and relaxation classes, along with social activities for patients and their caregivers in a nurturing environment. The newly established versions will continue in the same vein, Lagmay-Fuentes said.
“We’re talking about comprehensive care,” she said. “This will be a benefit to the community because of what it offers.”
Winters, a Long Branch resident, established the Cancer Support Community seven years ago, operating out of a Hope Road, Eatontown, office complex, in honor of her mother who died in 2004 from ovarian cancer. It was one of 50 affiliates around the country of the National Cancer Support Community, a Washington, D.C.-based organization.
The national organization was established in 1982 by Harold Benjamin, Ph.D. who founded the Wellness Community, and joined forces with Gilda’s Club, a community organization for people living with cancer, said Linda House, executive vice president for external affairs for the national support community. “His (Benjamin’s) idea was to create a place where they (patients) can go to become empowered and heal,” House said of the organization’s mission.
Winters has served as the community’s executive director from the beginning in May 15, 2007, until 2012, leaving the operations to its board of director, to concentrate her efforts on fundraising for the facility.
The facility closed its doors on April 30 due to financial challenges.
Since then Winters had been working on re-establishing it, continuing fundraising and seeker partners. However, “Frankly, if Monmouth Medical didn’t step in, it would have gone away,” Winters acknowledged, grateful for the medical center’s commitment. “That’s the thing that’s the most important, that it’ll still be there as a resource for the whole community, for the people who need it.”
Winter will continue to work on fundraising, serving as president of a related, independent not-for-profit.
To support the facility, the Cancer Support Community at Monmouth Medical Center will host this year’s Celebration of Life fundraiser, 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 20 at Eagle Oaks Golf and Country Club, Farmingdale. Those interested in tickets or sponsorship opportunities can contact Winters at ilene@cscjerseyshore.org.
