Resource for, by survivors

Elia Powers

They are a talkative trio, the women who are bound by their survival

stories and a cozy, first-floor office in the north end of Newport

Beach.

All three have overcome cancer. They aren’t afraid to speak

candidly about the disease with each other and with their clients at

the 5-year-old Center for Cancer Counseling.

But there was a time when discussing their condition wasn’t as

simple, they say, because no one was asking the right questions.

“The fear of cancer is so overwhelming it can be hard to talk

about,” said Fran Baumgarten, the center’s co-founder and director.

“The words get stuck in your throat.”

Baumgarten, a Newport Beach resident and a clinical psychologist,

was diagnosed with breast cancer in the early 1990s, a decade after

her father had died of lymphoma.

She said she was initially hesitant to undergo aggressive

treatment because she had seen the physical toll it took on her

father.

“The disease wasn’t leaving me alone,” Baumgarten said. “Every few

years something was happening. I promised, after my dad died, that I

wouldn’t go out the same way.”

In 1994, when Baumgarten had a recurrence of breast cancer, her

doctor said she had few options other than surgery.

So Baumgarten spent three weeks in a hospital and six months in

chemotherapy treatment. Her cancer was removed, but she said there

was something lacking in the treatment.

“While I was in the hospital, not one person walked into my room

and said, ‘How do you feel?’” Baumgarten said.

Twenty-seven-year-old Brandi Donaldson wasn’t prepared to speak

about her emotional state when she was asked about it a few years

ago.

“What do you mean how do you deal with this?” Donaldson said she

told the person. “I had been so caught up with the fact that my life

wasn’t going to be normal again.”

Donaldson was diagnosed with melanoma early in 2003. She had

recently married and was in graduate school at Pepperdine University

when she noticed a mole on her stomach.

She said she underwent two surgeries in four months and had

recuperated by the end of the year. In October 2004, she became the

third part-time staff member at the center, a nonprofit organization

that helps cancer patients and their families cope with the emotional

aspect of the disease.

Baumgarten said the clients include the recently diagnosed and the

terminally ill. Grief counseling and home and hospital visits are

other services offered.

“We’re a resource for families,” Baumgarten said. “Everyone says

it’s comforting to know that we understand what they’re going

through.”

The concept for the center came to Baumgarten a decade ago. While

working at Children’s Hospital of Orange County with young cancer

patients, and later offering her services at an organization that

helped children whose parents had died of the disease, she said she

noticed an obvious void.

She said doctors didn’t have the time or the training to console

their patients about their emotional state. So Baumgarten, with the

help of colleague George Orras, opened the center. Both are active on

the board of directors.

Baumgarten said lower-income families receive financial support to

participate in one-on-one counseling sessions through contributions

from local philanthropists.

Along with Leslie Drozd, a psychologist and a breast cancer

survivor, who was diagnosed in 2001 and is now cancer-free,

Baumgarten and Donaldson provide clients with tips for adjusting to

realities of their new lives.

Baumgarten said she advises patients to be proactive. She has some

parents make DVDs or other mementos that can be given to their

children.

While most of the center’s focus is one-on-one interaction,

Donaldson is attempting to organize a support group for young cancer

patients.

It’s part of the overall plan to encourage frank, emotional

discussion, Drozd said.

“How you are feeling doesn’t always come up in conversation,”

Drozd said. “Our job is to make people feel comfortable.”

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

[email protected].