When Eric Glass of Saugerties returned to the Hudson Valley in 2019 to recuperate from throat cancer surgery, he admits that he’d been a little spoiled by the level of care that he’d been able to access at the Orlando Cancer Center, where he had “17 people on my cancer team.” He wanted a post-op cancer support group as good as the one he’d left behind, or even better. Now he’s taking steps to make one happen.
A retired teacher and former Woodstock resident, he had been living in central Florida since 2010. In 2016, a “sore throat that didn’t go away” led to the discovery of a malignant growth on his larynx. The cancer required surgical removal of his larynx, pharynx, lymph nodes and part of his tongue. To relate his story, Glass has to press a button on his transesophageal voice prosthesis, or TEP, which is installed in a stoma in the base of his throat. This closes a valve that redirects air from the trachea into the esophagus to enable synthesized speech, while blocking food and liquid from entering the airway.
Glass underwent a long recovery process, possible only because his sister and child “pretty much put their life on hold” and came to live with him for a while. Reconstructing his throat required removal of a large chunk of tissue from his thigh, which needed to be hooked up to a machine while the wound healed. And then he had to undergo voice therapy to master speaking through his TEP. To help him get through this difficult period, he began attending a cancer support group that met regularly and had 24 active members. It was secular, well-facilitated and mainly informational in focus. “It didn’t really deal with feelings,” Glass notes.
There was a lot he liked about this support group, but he still felt alone and vulnerable in Florida, and eventually decided to return to the Woodstock area, where most of his friends still live. He found a house on the Esopus Creek across from a wildlife sanctuary, where, he says, “I’ve got the best bird smörgåsbord in Saugerties” visiting his feeders. But his cancer recovery still required regular monitoring. “I started to look for a support group for myself, but there was pretty much one organization: HealthAlliance.” Besides talk groups for those undergoing or recuperating from cancer treatment, the Kingston hospital consortium’s Oncology Support Program offers groups focused on exercise, diet, art and memoir-writing — all of which went virtual when the pandemic hit.
Glass tried out some of these offerings, but didn’t find them a particularly good fit. Not only was he seeking a group that was well-attended and secular, but he also thought that such groups should offer emotional support as well as practical information, and be open to family members and caregivers along with the patient. He had also noted that many cancer support organizations are focused on a particular type of cancer. He wanted one that would feel welcoming to all — and ideally, meet in the Woodstock/Saugerties area.
In the midst of his dreams of started up such a group, Glass crossed paths in Woodstock with Jane Young, a retired family nurse-practitioner. Young recently reached the five-year presumed remission threshold following surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment for uterine cancer. Although she found chemo in particular “pretty tough,” she says that she “worked the whole time” up until three years ago.
When Glass asked Young if she’d like to help to organize a Woodstock-based cancer support group, her interest was immediate — but more from the viewpoint of being a potential resource to others than from a need for continued counseling herself. “I’ve been a caretaker all my life,” she says. “Who is it that caretakers go to? I have people with cancer call me now. It’s comforting to know that someone else has gone through this.”
“I invited Jane over for dinner, and we talked about our cancer journeys. By the end of the evening, we had decided,” says Glass. The group would meet monthly, in person, with the first session allowing each person to take a turn to share their cancer story. “We’ll occasionally have a medical person address the group.”
But the technicalities of medical care won’t be the group’s primary raison d’etre. “We wanted it to be for all kinds of cancer, focusing more on the emotional side,” Young says. That said, the organizers mean to avoid the once-popular Bernie Siegel approach of miracle healing through positive thinking, as a result of which, according to Young, “People started to feel inadequate when they couldn’t stop their cancer.” Glass says, “We’re going to be non-judgmental. We want to create a safe space.”
Applying the sort of dark humor that many find a useful coping tool when personal disaster strikes, Young and Glass have adopted a friend’s suggestion to call the group Topic of Cancer. Its stated mission is to “help people transitioning to a new way of life, assist with common problems at home, work or school, the side effects of treatment, role and relationship changes, financial concerns.” They’ve found a sponsor in Family of Woodstock and a host in the Woodstock Reformed Church. “We already have a room assigned,” says Glass.
Topic of Cancer will meet at the Church, which is located on the Village Green, on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., beginning on September 22. Survivors and co-survivors of all types of cancer are invited to sign up by calling Eric Glass at 845-750-1253 or Jane Young at 914 466-2917.
Editor’s note:
This piece has been rewritten to correct an inaccurate description of the Oncology Support Program at HealthAlliance in Kingston as a religious cancer support center. Our sincere apologies for the mischaracterization.
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