For many years, I volunteered for the King County Crisis Clinic. During that time, Cancer Lifeline’s after-hours calls were forwarded to the KCCC phone line and that’s when I first became aware of the work Cancer Lifeline was doing. I found some similarities with the Crisis Clinic training when I decided to undergo Cancer Lifeline’s...
Author: Meghan W Melanson (Meghan W Melanson)
Meet Our Breakfast Chair Susan Baumgaertel, MD
Susan Baumgaertel, MD is in Internal Medicine at the Polyclinic. She has served on the Cancer Lifeline board since 2018 and has chaired our annual signature fundraiser Breakfast with Friends for the past two years. Below is an excerpt from her official bio with the Polyclinic. “I believe in empowering people to make healthy changes....
Important Information re: Coronavirus & Cancer Lifeline
With regards to the Coronavirus/COVID-19, Cancer Lifeline is currently following the lead of the Public Health department and the local community hospitals and how they impose limits upon their community education programs, under which Cancer Lifeline classes and support groups fall. To date, most of our hospital partners have recommended canceling their community education programs,...
2020 Breakfast with Friends Speakers
We are pleased to announce that there will be two speakers at this year’s Breakfast with Friends to be held on Thursday, April 23 at Bell Harbor International Conference Center. “It’s important to speak to both the head and the heart when it comes to Cancer Lifeline’s work,” said Executive Director Joseph Yurgevich. “These two speakers bring a...
New Family Workshop Series for Families with Children / Adolescents / Young Adults (ages 6-18)
Cancer Lifeline introduces a series of workshops for families this Winter at the Dorothy O’Brien Center near Green Lake. From sand play to family songs to dramatic play to storytelling to structure building, we’ll experiment with a variety of forms of creative expression to support family connection, cohesion, and rituals around topics that are sometimes...
From the Executive Director
Dear Friends of Cancer Lifeline, “No one should go through cancer alone.” This is the theme of our current campaign. It’s the core reason why Cancer Lifeline was founded in 1973 and it has everything to do with why we continue to work to expand our footprint throughout the Puget Sound and online. People are...
New Offering: Expressive Arts Therapy for Teens!
This Winter Quarter, we are expanding our expressive arts therapy programming to offer two Teen (ages 13-17, generally) Therapy Groups, one for teens with a cancer diagnosis and one for teens living with a loved one with a cancer diagnosis. They will run on Tuesdays (Teens with Cancer in the Family) and Wednesdays (Teens with Cancer)...
Maren’s Story
I was diagnosed several years ago with late-stage Melanoma. Around the same time, my mother started to feel unwell. I really thought her symptoms might just be the result of stress from helping me cope with my own cancer diagnosis. But the day before my surgery, Mom was hospitalized for tests and observation. The tests...
Janice’s Story
Shortly after starting treatment, cancer patient Janice Rowe realized that she would have to give up her vocation as a pastor in Seattle’s United Methodist Church in order to focus on her health. Fairly quickly Janice experienced the harsh financial impact that many clients face. Fortunately, through working with her social worker she learned about...
Staff Spotlight: Blair LaFavor
We caught up with Blair LaFavor, Cancer lifeline’s Program & Volunteer Coordinator, who just celebrated four years as a staff member. In addition to organizing the intensive Active Listening Training for our volunteers, Blair schedules all of our volunteers and oversees their work on the Lifeline and Lifeline Chat. She also puts together our class catalog and...