Battling Cancer, One Note at a Time

For Anne Romano, the diagnosis of breast cancer felt like a punch in the gut. Over the next three years, she underwent two surgeries, lost a breast, stopped working and, as a side effect from medication, gained 100 pounds.

“It affected me horribly,” she said. “I was in a state of chronic depression for a very long time.”

Patty Everett said she temporarily lost the ability to speak as a result of two tumors near the stem of her brain. “I hated it,” she said.

T.J. England was 52 when her breast cancer was diagnosed in 1992. Driving home from the hospital with her husband, she asked him how much he’d been told.

“He said it was bad,” England recalled. “I assumed the worse. I wondered how much time I had but didn’t want to ask.”

All three have found a measure of comfort in an unusual group: a choir for people with cancer. In fact, they say, the Celebration of Life Singers -- scheduled to perform their major annual concert Sunday -- offers more than a chance to forget; many members say it’s part of their cure.

“The choir helped me talk,” said Everett, 49, who’s been attending rehearsals every Tuesday night for three years.

Medical literature is replete with references to the healing power of music. And though cancer support groups are common, members say, this one offers support of a different kind.

“We don’t sit around and talk about our disease,” said Romano, 62. “We support each other through music -- by singing and laughing together.”

The choir was founded in 1997 by an oncology nurse and a cancer-stricken music therapist, both of whom have since moved away. The group doesn’t hold auditions and requires no talent to join. The only requirements, President Helga Hoffmann said, are that you love singing and either have cancer or are caring for someone who does.

“We would love to have more members, and younger ones too,” Hoffmann said of the group, whose 20 members range in age from 45 to 84. “We are not professionals, just have a love for music, and the music feels good.”

Their signature song -- performed each week at the Garden Grove church where they practice under the tutelage of a professional director who volunteers his time -- is “Keep the Flame Alive.”

“Keep the flame alive,” they sing, “never let it die. Light the way for all who follow ... there will always be hope for all who walk this way.”

They sing for two reasons, choir members say. First, to avail themselves of one another’s company and the healing power of music. And second, to give hope to those with a life-threatening disease.

“We are grateful for the time we’ve been given,” Romano said, “and the music is a celebration of that.”

In addition to the weekly rehearsals, they perform about a dozen times a year at venues ranging from hospital cancer wards to an annual hospice memorial service at the Crystal Cathedral. Sunday’s free concert is set for 6 p.m. at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Garden Grove.

“The biggest thing,” Romano said, “is that we get up on stage with smiling faces and we’re happy. Because we are cancer survivors, people don’t expect that.”

Indeed, some experts say, it’s no accident that music makes them smile. In his book “The Mozart Effect,” Don Campbell notes that some medical centers -- most notably one at the University of Massachusetts in Worchester -- sometimes use harp music in lieu of tranquilizers and painkillers for seriously ill patients, including those with cancer.

And two UC Irvine researchers published a study two years ago showing that the presence of immunoglobulin A -- a protein used by the immune system to fight disease -- increased 150% during rehearsals and 240% during performances in the saliva of Pacific Chorale members singing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Robert Beck, a professor of education who wrote the study with the dean of the university’s medical school, said of the efforts of Celebration of Life singers. “They have naturalistically found a self-healing method, and I applaud them for it -- I don’t think they could have chosen anything better.”

The healing doesn’t always work. Rehearsals can be unpredictable affairs, members say, with attendance dependent on who’s feeling well. Last year when one woman was too sick to go to practice, the choir rehearsed in her bedroom. And when she and another singer -- the group’s last remaining charter members -- succumbed to their cancers, the singers performed at their funerals.

“We supported the families, and they appreciated it very much,” Hoffmann said.

For most members on most days, however, the message is upbeat. “When I found this choir I found a home,” Romano said. “It’s uplifted my spirits.”

Indeed, England said, singing with the group has been a voyage of discovery. “I am physically and spiritually healthier. Singing is my life.”