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Lecture series will give
hope and healing
to cancer patients

It's been nearly nine years since I went through a bone marrow transplant to save my life; it cured me of leukemia. Though the journey was difficult, I feel abundantly blessed by the experience but especially by the outcome. I survived. I didn't always feel this way, however.

Cancer Lectures Oncologist and author Jeremy Geffen will launch the Hawaii Cancer Lecture Series with two talks Saturday at the East-West Center's Imin Hall. Morning: "A Body, Mind, Heart and Spirit Approach to Health in the 21st Century." This lecture focuses on cancer prevention. 9-11:30 a.m. Free. Afternoon: "The Journey Through Cancer: Honoring and Caring for the Whole Person." This talk is aimed at people with cancer and their families. 2-4:30 p.m. Free for patients and families, $35 for health and medical professionals. Internet: www.turning-pointcancercenter.com

My journey with cancer began not with a bang, but with a whimper. I bit my tongue during dinner, and by the time I went to bed the bleeding had not stopped. I awoke on a blood-soaked pillow in the morning. A trip to the emergency room for stitches and a routine blood test confirmed that my white blood count was too high and my platelet count was too low (the reason for the continued bleeding). A few more tests and a few weeks later, the diagnosis was confirmed. I had chronic myelogenous leukemia, a kind of cancer of the blood or bone marrow.

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is mind-numbing and frightening. My wife, Sandy, and I held each other tightly in the exam room. We were afraid -- afraid of what this would mean to us and our young family. This news was like receiving a death sentence.

Weeks later and after much research on the disease, I found good news and bad news. The good news is there is a cure; the bad news is the cure can kill. Research at that time showed that patients can survive a bone marrow transplant, but more patients died of the procedure than survived.

I was fortunate to have had excellent medical care available to me through Kaiser Permanente in Hawaii and the City of Hope National Medical Center in Southern California, where the transplant was performed.

The most significant personal discovery of my cancer experience was this: It takes more than good medicine to survive a life-threatening illness. It requires a healing of the body, mind, spirit and soul.

Two months after my diagnosis, I was at the Koolau Golf Course in Kaneohe hitting balls on the driving range. It will never be clear to me why I picked up the ball on the mat in front of me a moment before I hit it away. That ball carried an extraordinary message. Imprinted on the ball were two words -- "Beat Leukemia." It lifted my spirits and gave me hope. It was balm for a wounded soul. I thought that maybe I was not alone in my journey, after all.

I joined a weekly support group at the City of Hope made up of patients in various stages of their leukemia and transplant experiences. We encouraged each other. Their survival told me that I had a chance, and later my survival encouraged others; knowing what to expect on my journey helped me to prepare. Although we met only once a week, our conversations were intimate. We all felt better about ourselves and our chances for survival because of our participation in the support groups. That human touch, those raw emotions, carried such significance. I will never forget the simple observation of one of the nurses on the isolation ward, where all transplant patients spend the days immediately before, and long arduous weeks after, transplant. She told us that the staff always have a sense of which patients will survive and which won't, based solely on the patient's attitude.

Soon after I returned home from the mainland, I was invited by a doctor to share my experience as a cancer patient with his physician colleagues. I relished the opportunity to share my perspective as a patient. It was important to me that I impart the crucial message that they need to be so much more than simply mechanics, tending to stuff "under the hood," but rather healers who address the whole person. Especially when facing a life-threatening illness, the patient's body, mind, spirit and soul need to be healed.

My journey with cancer, primarily the nonscientific phases of healing, are the reasons that I am encouraging our community to take part in the monthly Hawaii Cancer Lecture Series that begins Saturday. It takes so much more than just the science of medicine to achieve true healing.

The credo of the City of Hope bears these words: There is no profit in curing the body if in the process we destroy the soul. I do not know of any truer words.

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