Event to bring a ‘Harvest of Hope’ to cancer patients
Published: September 28, 2004
Where there’s life, there’s hope.
From 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, The Longstreet Clinic will sponsor the third annual “Harvest of Hope” at the Lake Lanier Olympic Center. The program offers encouragement to cancer survivors, their families and friends.
“When a person has cancer, it’s like a stone thrown into a pond. The ripples affect many different people,” said Anup Lahiry, an oncologist with The Longstreet Clinic.
“As doctors, we tend to focus only on the cancer, and the human part of the equation is lost.”
The event includes Dragon Boat demonstrations by a team of cancer survivors, performances by the Gainesville Ballet and a Lakewood Baptist Church musical group, a book signing, food and testimonials by survivors.
“Their stories show that in many cases cancer can be considered as a chronic disease, not a death sentence,” Lahiry said.
Beverly Booth can attest to that. The Sandy Springs resident formed the Dragon Boat Atlanta team in February to spread awareness about breast cancer.
“We’re just a group of healthy women who’ve had cancer and said, ‘So what?’ And moved on with our lives,” Booth said.
“We want to show people that having a diagnosis of cancer doesn’t mean you can’t do fun things and have a full life.”
Jullie Greniewicki, spokeswoman for The Longstreet Clinic, said Harvest of Hope is free and open to anyone who has an interest in cancer or who has been touched by the disease.
“But we’d like for people to RSVP by Wednesday, so we’ll know how much food to provide,” she said.
The event also will include a “commitment center,” where participants can pledge to improve their health by getting a mammogram or a prostate screening, quitting smoking and so on.
Marietta residents Robin McIlvain and Alice Rollo will sign copies of the book “B.O.O.B.S.: A Bunch of Outrageous Breast-Cancer Survivors Tell Their Stories of Courage, Hope & Healing.”
They are among 10 Atlanta area women who teamed up to write the book, which was published by Nashville, Tenn.-based Cumberland House in April.
“The response we’re getting has been heartwarming,” McIlvain said. “We’ve found that the book is being bought by and for people with all types of cancer.
“The driving force for surviving anything is having the right attitude, and that’s one of the messages we’ve tried to convey.”
Lahiry, who helped start Harvest of Hope three years ago, said the gardening reference in the event’s title was intentional.
“We want to sow the seeds of hope,” he said. “Without it, there’s no point in going through the chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.”
The program helps patients network with those who have gone through a similar ordeal, Lahiry said, and also puts things in perspective.
“We want them to see that there’s a lot more to life than cancer,” he said. “None of us really knows how much time we have left on this earth, so the best approach is to live life to the fullest.”
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