Dr. Jay Burton DO, President
Survivor Journeys® has been a non-profit organization since March 2015. Its origins began during the year-long medical quarantine Dr. Jay Burton lived through after his stem cell transplant for Acute Myeloid Leukemia which ended in late October 2011.
Dr. Burton’s emotional and social support experiences prompted speaking engagements about cancer survivorship. The community interest generated from these talks, as well as the lack of emotional and support services for cancer survivors in our region, led to the creation of Survivor Journeys.®
Survivor Journeys® supports adults, young adults, and pediatric cancer survivors, as well as their caregivers and loved ones. Survivor Journeys™ is a community-based support network of professionals from diverse clinical and community backgrounds who provide cancer survivors, caregivers, and loved ones unique survivorship services in western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.
A cancer survivor is a person who has been diagnosed with cancer. At that moment, you go into survival mode. Your personal and work life becomes a whirlwind as if it were not already complicated. Now you have to fit cancer testing, treatment, and side effects into your life. You need to physically and emotionally adjust your life. And it can be lonely, even if you have a good support system around you.
There are almost 16 million cancer survivors. Most of them are not aware of National Cancer Survivor’s Day. Why? In my opinion, it is because there is little awareness about who is a cancer survivor and also what is cancer survivorship. Cancer Survivorship is living with cancer before, during, and after treatment; in other words, your life with cancer and beyond it. I know this world. I am a survivor of Acute Myeloid Leukemia and a stem cell transplant, class of 2010.
Oncologists are too focused on curing a patient’s cancer to get involved in cancer survivorship. Other physicians defer cancer-related care to oncologists. So from a medical standpoint, this is the reason why cancer survivorship does not get much play from physicians. Other cancer-related organizations often work in silos and as a result do not collaborate enough to create awareness of meaningful services that cancer survivors, their caregivers, and families can take advantage of. This occurs nationally and locally.
Then there is the focus on cancer research. This is critically important. There are so many wonderful organizations and events that raise money for cancer research. However, donors need to realize that little, if any, of this money goes to the people living with cancer. It is hard to live with cancer. It takes money and support. If you lose your job, have to cut back on hours, or if you do not have a job, how do you obtain care? How do you get to your appointments? How do you pay your rent/mortgage? How do you get your kids to dance or soccer practice when you have your chemotherapy? Donors should also think about funding organizations that help cancer survivors live their lives the next time they open their hearts and their wallets.
I can’t fix all of this, but I can make a dent in it. Our mission is to help provide emotional and social support for cancer survivors, their caregivers, and their families. We have cancer-specific support groups, a caregiver group, an adult mentoring program with national ties, and a pet therapy program. We are developing a Young Adult Cancer Survivor group and a Pediatric Cancer Caregiver Mentoring program. We also will be having an Expressive Arts program component.
However, if there is little awareness about cancer survivorship, no cancer-related organization can optimally achieve its mission. We believe that to create this awareness, we must educate cancer survivors, their caregivers and families, oncologists, primary care physicians, mental health professionals, other ancillary health professionals, and the general public about issues about cancer survivorship.
Education is empowering. Creating more awareness about cancer survivorship is the goal.
Our services are built on collaboration with local provider and cancer survivors, along with regional and nationally recognized cancer organizations. Our programs include:
Cancer-specific support groups
Survivor and caregiver peer mentoring program
Educational programs
Community outreach programs
Caregiver support group
Community-based referrals meeting the unique needs of cancer survivors and their loved ones
Professional development workshops and presentations
Survivor Journeys® offer free cancer survivor and caregiver mentoring in our area. A Cancer Survivor/Caregiver Mentor is a cancer survivor or caregiver trained to assist and support others with the initial emotional, psychological, and practical needs that can seem insurmountable after a cancer diagnosis.
Survivor Journeys® offer this program as a way to connect individuals who have been recently diagnosed with cancer with one-on-one support from someone who has experienced the same diagnosis and similar course of treatment.
Survivor Journeys® will work to match the support seeker with survivors with similar demographics such as age, gender, and life situation. If we are unable to find an ideal match for someone locally, Survivor Journeys® will tap into a national network, Volunteer Management in Cancer Care ( a consortium of programs in major cancer centers and other organizations), to search for the best match. This network includes access to over 10,000 survivor/caregiver mentors from around the country.
Cancer Survivor Groups
Any Cancer Support Group
Bereavement Support Group
Blood Cancer Support Group
Breast Cancer Support Group
Caregiver Support Group
Head and Neck Cancer Support Group
Spanish-Speaking Any Cancer Support Group
What Do You Do When… Cancer Support Group
ACCEPTS VIRTUAL CLIENTS
Survivor Journeys®
P.O. Box 60471
Longmeadow, Massachusetts 01116-2826
413-276-6100
survivorjourneys.org
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