The Hampshire Gazette about BCforum

Six years ago, Susan Frisius was struggling to push her shopping cart through the aisles of the local Super Foodmart. Months of chemotherapy for breast cancer had weakened her, she said, making the task of gripping a couple of containers of yogurt next to impossible.

A sympathetic stranger approached and offered to drive her home in Frisius' car. The stranger then walked the two miles back from Frisius' house to the grocery store alone.

Frisius never got her name, and she never saw the Good Samaritan again.

"Strangers will do wonderful things," said Frisius, 53, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1994 and has fought the disease into remission.

This week, Frisius is going to similar lengths for Gwen Taylor, a breast cancer patient whom she knows from an Internet chat room Frisius began when her cancer was discovered.

Frisius will deliver an afghan that she hand-crocheted to Taylor, whose online name is Elway, at her home in Elko, Nev.

Taylor has battled breast cancer for six years. The cancer has metastasized to her liver, and has been treated with multiple forms of medication and therapy, all of which have failed to stop its growth, Frisius said.

According to Frisius, Taylor was on Taxol, a cancer drug, for four years; longer than anyone else in the country.

"We call her Wonder Woman," Frisius said in a statement on the Web site.

Frisius said Taylor, whose online nickname reflects her admiration for retired Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, found many sympathizers in the BCForum chat room located at www.bcforum.org.

There people can find information about breast cancer treatments, prevention, and counseling. Patients, family members, and doctors can correspond, share resources, and comfort each other.

"A lot of times, your friends get scared or don't understand, and they abandon you," said Frisius. "People join support groups like this because they can relate."

Before heading for Nevada, Frisius will meet up with Barbara Fortin, who also is in remission for breast cancer, at Fortin's home in Champaign, Ill. The two women will travel together to present the afghan, which is adorned with ribbons from chat room participants. Simple words of support such as "laughter" and "hope" are written on the ribbons.

Frisius made a similar trip in 1997, delivering a quilt made by BCForum chat room member Pat D'Andria with 16 panels, each hand-sewn for cancer patient Rhonda Burge, of Macon, Ga.

More than medicine

With all the advances in medicine, the therapies, remedies, and cures that may lie around the corner, many people like Frisius who have struggled often without, the help of those close to them, will say that support and love can be essential elements in fighting the disease.

"Most people want an instant cure," said Frisius. "When you go through these treatments, you encounter huge problems, and you need help.

Frisius said the anonymity of the chat room creates a comfortable atmosphere for communication. "With a chat room you are just down to words," she said. "You have a certain amount of safety."

The breast cancer chat room is currently open from 8 to 11 p.m. each night of the week. Frisius said that in the future, she hopes to keep the chat room online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Susan Frisius drapes herself in an afghan she made for a breast cancer survivor in Nevada.
Frisius, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1994, is personally delivering the afghan to the woman,
who she met on an Internet chat room she created.

Reprinted with permission of The Hampshire Gazette.

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To visit The Faces of Breast Cancer Gallery, click on the banner!

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BCforum is a chat room for those who have breast cancer and for their friends and family members.

We meet at 8 pm EST every evening for information, hugs and laughter!

• Information - because we need to be informed about all aspects of the disease.
  
• Laughter - because it's more fun to laugh than it is to cry.
  
• Hugs - because good friends hug each other.

To get there, click on the pink ribbons!!!!

Please email me if you have any problems accessing BCforum!

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A listserv is an email group. To join a breast cancer or related listserv, click on the pink ribbon icon!!!!

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Please buy all your BOOKS/VIDEOS/CDs/DVDs/GIFTS
through the link on my site to amazon.com.

A percentage of each item purchased through the link on my site
will go to help those with breast cancer who have met on the Internet,
meet in person!

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