Women with incurable cancer often hold back at meetings because they don't want to depress or frighten other women who are newly diagnosed, Corneliussen-James said. Some groups have gone further, she said, asking late-stage breast cancer patients not to attend their meetings.
She said the Breast Center at the Annapolis hospital assigned her a mentor and gave her a gift bag of information when she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in 2004. After a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, she went into remission. When she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in 2006, there was no mentor or bag waiting for her. Stage IV cancer patients understandably don't have mentors.
"It really jumped out at me," Corneliussen-James said.
The Breast Center was unaware that its late-stage patients needed a specialized support group until Corneliussen-James brought it up, said Barbara Easterling, a registered nurse and executive director of the Breast Center. Easterling said that metastatic breast cancer patients often fall through the cracks because they no longer are dealing with just cancer in the breast. Many times, those patients are seeking out specialists at other medical centers.
"They are kind of out there, without direction," Easterling said.
Easterling said the center is happy that it can now steer late-stage breast cancer patients toward Compass. The medical center has given Corneliussen-James her own direct line, and she handles all the group's donations.
While the group shares information on research and treatments, members try to focus on getting together for coffee, shopping and sightseeing trips. Next week, they are planning to take a trolley through Annapolis.
"We're not a morbid bunch of women by any stretch," said Avis Halberstadt, a Compass member who lives in Annapolis. "We get together, and we laugh, we talk."
Rhonda Rhodes, 50, was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in February when doctors found her breast cancer had returned and spread to her brain, lungs, chest wall and kidneys. Now in her second round of chemotherapy, she looks forward to sharing tips and research with other Compass members. They help her cope with maintaining her job and a household that includes two young children.
"It's not a group that feels sorry for itself," Rhodes said. "We seize the day."
