“You cannot give up hope.”

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© Ginny Rickey

Christy’s story began in the year 2000 when she and her husband were getting ready to start a family. But instead of a pregnancy, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Obviously, her diagnosis was devastating, but she was very thankful to have a very supportive group of people, like her husband (who attended every doctor’s appointment with her) and an incredible family and group of friends. “When you’re dealing with a life threatening disease like cancer, it’s important to have a strong support system like I had, but it was also unrealistic to expect my loved ones to totally understand what I was going through,” she says.  She was only 31 years old and didn’t want to think about cancer. She wanted to think about babies and to do the things other young adults were doing. However, that just wasn’t her reality. Instead, she was faced with dealing with the side effects of chemo, numerous surgeries, and even the possibility of death. Christy’s reality wasn’t much fun at the time and a friend of hers suggested she attend a support group at The Wellness Community-West Los Angeles. She is so glad she took her friend’s advice.

Although the other participants were complete strangers to her, she felt an instant connection with them. It didn’t matter what type of cancer each person was battling or the stage of cancer they were in…they were connected. She met so many courageous people at TWC-WLA that she often left meetings feeling energized and hopeful. Christy needed to know there were others just like her fighting the same disease, and it was important for her to have a place that she could feel safe to express her fears and talk about her insecurities. She found that place at TWC-WLA and that’s why she refers to it as her “cancer home.” TWC gave Christy the courage to make the difficult decision to have a bilateral mastectomy as well as deal with the fact that she was left infertile due to chemo. Better yet, TWC-WLA helped her see that although she didn’t have a choice about getting cancer, she did have a choice as to how she was going to deal with it.

Christy is so very thankful for Harold and Harriet Benjamin’s generosity and courage to start The Wellness Community-WLA. They created such a special place, and the people that work there have truly made it a safe environment for those who walk through its doors. She has been honored to lead the Welcome to Wellness meetings for the last several years and hopes that she can make newly diagnosed cancer patients and their families feel like they have found their second home.

It’s taken Christy almost six years to be able to say this, but she’s actually thankful that she had breast cancer. It led her to The Wellness Community-WLA and most importantly, it led her and her husband to their adopted son, Lucas. Lucas is her proof that although she went through a very negative thing, something extremely positive came of it. “You just cannot give up hope. I never could have imagined that cancer would have led me to such a special little boy.”