Making a Difference in Your Community : Foundation Gives Hope to Patients

One out of three people in the United States will develop cancer at some point in their lives.

“With that kind of number, I can’t believe that 100% of the people in the U. S. haven’t been affected in some way,” said Dr. Avrum Bluming, an oncologist who is chief of staff at Encino-Tarzana Medical Center.

Those very numbers are what spurred Dr. Bluming to help found the Encino-based H.O.P.E. Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated since 1979 to disseminating information about cancer and providing a network of emotional support and therapy for cancer patients and their loved ones. The foundation also offers bereavement support groups for those who have lost a loved one to cancer. All of the services are provided free of charge.

Like Dr. Bluming, the doctors, nurses, lawyers, homemakers and businessmen and women who serve on the foundation’s board of directors all volunteer their time and services. A corps of volunteers, most from the Valley, also work to support the foundation’s paid staff of professional counselors.

In 1989, Jane Mayer of Woodland Hills, already partially paralyzed from a cerebral aneurysm she suffered four years earlier, found that she had thyroid cancer. The disease is usually curable, but in the case of Mayer, a free-lance writer in her 60s, the cancer had spread beyond her thyroid, leaving virtually no hope of a cure.

“My original doctor said, ‘You probably won’t live more than a year or two.’ ”

Mayer found a flyer describing one of H.O.P.E.’s creative imagery classes, where cancer patients are guided by Dr. Marilyn Stolzman, a counselor trained in relaxation and stress management exercises.

The creative visualization classes are part of the H.O.P.E. Foundation’s 11 bereavement support groups and four groups for cancer patients and their families.

“We’re not posing this as a cure,” Stolzman said. “All of these patients are under a doctor’s care and none of them are using visualization as an alternative to radiation therapy, surgery and chemo. It’s an adjunct to prescribed medical treatment and all of the oncologists in the Valley have been notified of this service.”

Mayer herself had radiation therapy, two surgeries and has been in and out of chemotherapy for nearly three years.

“I feel like I’ve been given a gift,” she says.

In some cases, Dr. Bluming says, the H.O.P.E. Foundation’s efforts can be credited with directly saving lives.

One woman suffering from multiple myeloma, a bone malignancy that very few survive, called a foundation information line and happened to mention that she had an identical twin.

With the help of volunteers, the foundation began calling treatment centers around the country to try and find out if any performed marrow transplants between identical twins. The foundation discovered that one was being performed that very day at University Hospital in Seattle and referred the patient there.

“That was 15 years ago; she was in bed with a collapsing spine,” Dr. Bluming said. “If you passed her today on Ventura Boulevard, you’d never know anything was ever wrong with her.”

Dr. Bluming says the foundation has been lucky to have fund-raising support from such celebrities as Alan Alda, Peter Falk and Steven Spielberg. But he reserves praise for the nearly 80 less famous Valley volunteers who keep the foundation’s programs going.

In addition to fund-raising, volunteer help is needed with: general office duties; mailings; computer support services related to FreeNet, an international cancer information electronic bulletin board; and person-to-person services for people with special needs like transportation to doctor’s appointments.

To volunteer, call the H.O.P.E. Foundation at (818) 954-0080 or volunteer director Dr. Ron Carlish at (213) 484-7230.

Pioneer Home (818-787-2403), an AIDS hospice in Van Nuys, seeks volunteers to provide residents with companionship, take them on outings and assist with household chores and errands work. Volunteers are also needed with fund-raising events.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.