While a cancer diagnosis can itself be daunting, navigating the twists and turns in the road to recovery without the proper support networks can be further debilitating — a concern that sparked the creation of a new support group meant to provide a comfortable, accepting environment for LGBT individuals and their loved ones grappling with cancer.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society will host its second LGBT cancer support group Nov. 7 at the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St.
The group is open to LGBT individuals currently dealing with a cancer diagnosis, survivors and loved ones or caregivers.
“LGBT cancer patients and survivors face unique issues through their cancer journey that those who are heterosexual may not,” said Ilana Benyosef, patient-services manager at the Eastern Pennsylvania chapter of LLS.
Though not the first in the area to provide support for women (the Rainbow Circle program of the Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation focuses on lesbian and bisexual women), the new group is the first cancer support group for the larger LGBT community in the region, Benyosef said, and fills a void.
“When someone is diagnosed, they will often feel very alone, like they’re the only ones going through it. And if someone is gay and looking for support from a group that is mostly heterosexual, they may feel twice as lonely and isolated,” she said. “So we felt the need in the community for something specifically where LGBT people can feel comfortable to talk about the issues and feel like they can be with people who can relate to them.”
Joseph Golas, an LLS volunteer who helped the group get off the ground, is himself a cancer survivor who’s been in remission for two years.
After his diagnosis, he sought assistance from a peer-to-peer support group run by LLS that matches patients and survivors to discuss their experiences, and Golas, who is gay, happened to be matched with another gay man.
“It really made a difference to be able to talk freely about my partner and the experiences that we were going through,” Golas said. “It helped me a lot, but it made me see that it wouldn’t have been as easy to talk to a straight person about this and they may not have understood as much as he did.”
After searching unsuccessfully for an LGBT support group in the area, Golas proposed the idea to LLS and was connected with Benyosef, who was already thinking of the initiative.
The first meeting, held in early October, drew three participants, and organizers expect the group to grow each month.
The three attendees this month illustrated the group’s vast appeal — one was currently in treatment, one was in remission and one was a caregiver for a relative.
One of the participants talked openly about his experiences with prostate cancer, a conversation Golas said may not have been possible in a traditional support-group setting.
“He talked about how the cancer did affect his sexual life, and he was able to do that in this setting because he didn’t need to worry about being judged,” he said. “In a support group specifically for people with prostate cancer, it would probably be a lot of middle-aged or older straight men, and it would be tough for a gay man to talk about the real, personal effects the cancer was having on him.”
The conversation is facilitated by a group leader — who by LLS standards must be a licensed professional social worker or licensed nurse with support-group training — and, in this case, is a lesbian cancer survivor.
While the leader is present to guide the conversation, Benyosef noted that essentially the “group runs itself.”
“She’s there to offer clinical facts and expertise if it’s needed and to bring people together to discuss what’s going on, but most of the conversation is the group members providing feedback and input to other members of the group,” she said. “They’re there for each other to provide this safe place that people can go to for support.”
The meetings will be held the first Monday of the month at the center.
Group members must register for the meetings by calling Benyosef at 610-238-0360 ext. 232.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].