Mary's Place by the Sea Supports Women with Breast Cancer

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Michele Gannon, President, and Maria McKeon, Vice President of Mary’s Place by the Sea, located in Ocean Grove, NJ, to explain how their organization helps women of all ages dealing with breast cancer by providing mental and physical support.

7/3/18 #2154

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"We are pleased to welcome two very special guests, Maria McKeon, Vice President of Mary's Place by the Sea, and her colleague Michele Gannon, President of Mary's Place by the Sea. Welcome. Thank you. It's great to be here. Mary's Place by the Sea is? It's a cancer center for women who are in treatment or up to one year post treatment. Created in 2009 because? We saw that there was a need. Michele was sick with the flu, and saw me at the gym and said, “I had this idea Maria, do you want to join me?" And I said, "Yes, I'm with you". And it was to help people with terminal illness get away from it all. And we really started to create this mission... Hmm. ...based on a conversation with each other, about when a woman has a life threatening disease, or any kind of experience that they need help, and cancer being one of those things that we thought of their health, their laundry list, they're always doing everything, and to take a step away and to really heal themselves from this experience, and that's really how we started to create this mission, really just with each other, kind of brainstorming, and the puzzles of... the pieces of the puzzle started really coming and forging together. You know, we have some friends who have actually been there. Oh. And spent some time there. And they talk beyond the services, about the love and support, and the empathy and compassion. Uh huh. That's great. Talk about some of the actual help that it's provided. All of the services were actually created because of sitting with the guests, and asking them, ”Where are there gaps?" ”Where do you need support?" ”What can we do?" And we found, resoundingly, that it was the emotional support that they needed. So we started with oncology massage, because that's a service that quiets them. We take them into the massage room, we have licensed practitioners, who just give them a moment to, sometimes that's the first massage they've ever received, but what it does is it connects them back to their body. And then we go... What do you mean by that? Because through the medication, through the diagnosis, we have found that once diagnosed, sometimes it's outside of, it's a diagnosis, it's a screen, it's a stage, it's a cell, and you're forgetting the soul, the person it's attached to. And so what we do is we connect that person, again, and let them really feel, it is an emotional journey, one that must be taken, and that's taken with over 100 different volunteers, many..."