By Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Denise Edmiston, Program Director for Gilda's Club: This is our living room and this is the first thing you walk into and we usually have a fire going in the fireplace.
Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 reporter: A renovated office park on Oak Lawn Avenue has become the new clubhouse of sorts for more than 200 men and women who have cancer or a family member with the disease. It's one of 16 Gilda's Clubs in the U.S. and Canada named after Gilda Radner, the television comedienne who died from ovarian cancer in 1989. Denise Edmiston is the Club's program director.
Edmiston: The philosophy of Gilda's Club is that social and emotional support is just as important as your medical care, your medical treatment. And we're all fortunate to live in an area that has great medical treatment, but if you're not meeting that social and emotional component of your wholeness of your being, then it's not completing the whole need of the patient.
Sprague: The interior of Gilda's Club is warm and inviting with big comfy couches and soft lighting in the rooms where support groups meet. There's also a library, a meditation room and a studio for yoga classes.
Yoga Instructor: We inhale with our arms up and exhale looking at me 'cause it's all about me... (laughter)
Sprague: But Edmiston says Gilda's doesn't pamper its members.
Edmiston: Often times people who have been diagnosed with cancer and their family members feel out of control and our philosophy is we are trying to give them more of a sense of control in their life. So when they come in, we tell them this is your clubhouse, and when you go up to get a cup of coffee and there's no coffee in the coffeepot, go ahead and make a cup of coffee. It's very empowering and that's a big part of our mission.
Sprague: Anna Martinez is a Gilda's member from Dallas.
Anna Martinez, Gilda's Club Member: I was diagnosed two years ago with breast cancer. And Gilda's has been just the most wonderful thing that has happened to me.
Sprague: Martinez's husband joined Gilda's, too. And, her daughters have attended art classes with her there. But she says the community of fellow cancer patients and survivors is what she values most.
Martinez: There's a lot more laughing going on than crying. We can be emotional and express our feelings but we can have a good time together.
Sprague: Gilda's also offers a special support program for children, in a sort of playroom called "Noogieland." 10-year-old Diane Weinthal comes to Gilda's because her mother has a brain tumor.
Diane Weinthal, Gilda's Club member: I really like it here, because I feel like it's a really safe place for me where I can just go and be myself. Sometimes we find out about cancer and how it develops and sometimes we talk about how we feel about our parents having cancer.
Sprague: Gilda's is funded by contributions. It neither raises money for nor conducts medical research. And although it isn't the only support program in town, Dr. Marvin Stone, who is the chief of oncology at Baylor Medical Center, says Gilda's stands out when compared with most hospital-based programs.
Dr. Marvin Stone, Chief of Oncology at Baylor Medical Center: It's a facility that provides patient education and psycho-social support which is independent of where a patient is being treated so that it brings people together who might not have met in other ways before.
Sprague: Organizers hope Gilda's Club will become the first place North Texans turn to for support when they've been diagnosed with cancer. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.
Ton contact Suzanne Sprague, please send emails to ssprague@kera.org.