“Leading the Welcome to Wellness meetings with my friend Rhio was magical.  I left every session feeling as if I was floating on a cloud.”

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© Ginny Rickey

Over the past seven years, The Wellness Community – West Los Angeles has played a very important role in the life of Mira Haimovich.  A diagnosis of breast cancer in 2000 and its subsequent treatments of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation brought her to the TWC-WLA Breast Cancer Networking Group.  From there she joined a weekly support group led by Michael States, MFT.  At one of the community’s events Mira witnessed the award ceremony for Team Wellness, the TWC-WLA marathon team, and knew that she’d soon join them.  She trained hard for the 2002 Vancouver marathon and felt extreme pride with her finishing time of four plus hours.  What thrilled her even more was the more than $3,000 she raised to support the programs and services at TWC-WLA.  

The following year, she readied herself for the New Orleans marathon but hit a major hurdle – a new cancer was found.  As a result of her radiation, Mira developed an angiosarcoma on her chest wall.  The tumor was removed by surgery, and Mira was back training for the marathon team in no time.  At the New Orleans marathon, she reduced her time by one hour!  Now, that’s inspiration!  Mira continued as an active member of Team Wellness for several years, but her paying it forward to TWC-WLA had just begun. 

And then there was the band -- a trio formed by Mira and her fellow support group members.  Mira sang Brazilian Jazz, Sandy played guitar and Alan played the keyboard.  They got together and the sounds were amazing!  What started out casually - jamming in their free time - turned into a professional act with real paying gigs. Their fondest moment was “Beatles Night” at TWC-WLA.  They sang many favorite tunes including Fool on the Pill -- a take off on the original, Fool on the Hill, as well as some of Alan’s original hits.  The three group members and/or band members still get together and the music plays on and on. 

For the past four years, Mira has been a Welcome to Wellness meeting volunteer.  She was ‘paired’ to co-lead this orientation group at TWC-WLA with the late, Rhio Weir. She says, “Leading the group and helping newly diagnosed cancer patients is the most rewarding thing in my life”. She looks forward to those Tuesday nights, as they are, for her, “The highlight of the month”. 

Mira is still active in TWC-WLA programs and attends the Wellness Connection and the Family Connection.