Photos, personal stories spotlight cancer battles

Exhibit at Civista lets local survivors tell tales of courage

Friday, Nov. 14, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photos Lawrence Dyson, Sharon Bowie, Kelly Krauel and Ed and Anna Jameson pose before their story boards, which tell of their experiences with cancer. The exhibit, "Surviving Cancer: A Photographic Essay", will be on display at Civista Medical Center in La Plata until Nov. 17 E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Click here to enlarge this photo Click here to enlarge this photo

If you stop into the emergency room at Civista Medical Center in La Plata this week, you may see the portraits of people you know or have worked with from the community displayed in the waiting area.

Shelia Wise, a five-year breast cancer survivor, had seen the exhibit in previous years.

"I saw this exhibit before I had cancer and thought how nice it was, what a great thing," Wise said in a posting on the Civista Web site. "But I never thought I would be in it."

Joyce Riggs, health promotions manager for Civista Medical Center, wants people to know that the exhibit is not a memorial for those who have lost their lives to cancer, but more of a celebration of the lives of people who have beaten cancer.

"We want people to realize the importance of early detection," Riggs said. "We want to feature people who have survived because they found their cancers early."

Gertrude Davis, 62, of Marbury is someone who can testify to the importance of early detection for cancer treatments.

"My stomach was acting up," Davis said in her essay. "I had a lot of diarrhea and vomiting. I was being treated for diverticulitis. I also had bloody stools. I changed doctors after I was diagnosed with cancer. I had to remove part of my colon. I had no family history of colon or rectal cancer. I feel blessed by the experience. The people I met during treatment became family."

The exhibit, called "Surviving Cancer, A Photographic Essay," was created 14 years ago by Darlene Fairfax, who worked as a community relations specialist for Civista.

Fairfax got the idea for the exhibit when the National Breast Cancer Coalition offered to bring its traveling exhibit to Civista.

"We didn't want to feature people that had lost their lives to breast cancer," Fairfax said. "We didn't want to embed thoughts of death in people's minds. We thought if we showed people who had survived cancer, it would give a more hopeful, positive message."

In the first year, the exhibit featured 27 people from all over the Southern Maryland area. The first few years, the exhibit was focused strictly on breast cancer survivors.

"One year Tom Fritz, a retired county administrator, asked why we didn't feature prostate cancer survivors," Fairfax said. "Since then we have featured prostate and colon cancer survivors, along with the breast cancer survivors."

Riggs said that the hospital starts searching for the survivors it displays in the spring of each year. The project is advertised in fliers, through the hospital newsletter and the Charles County Health Department.

Richard Talbot of Waldorf was studying the exhibits Monday afternoon, especially the colon cancer survivors' stories.

"I had colon cancer when I was 29," Talbott said.

The experience has made him an advocate for early detection and treatment.

"I talk to people all the time that don't want to have the colonoscopies," Talbot said. "When they finally discovered my cancer, I had all of my colon and part of my small bowel removed. They were able to make an artificial colon for me out of a part of my small bowel. I was only the second person to have had that procedure done."

Talbot wants people to know what can happen when they ignore the warning signs of cancer.

"I talked to my uncle for three years about the symptoms he was having, and he didn't want to get tested," Talbot said. "He finally went to the hospital because the pain had gotten too bad. He never left. My uncle died when he was only 57 years old."

Talbot wants people to know that colonoscopies are not as bad as people think they are.

"I have had eight of them," Talbot said. "They make you so comfortable now when they do it."

Riggs said the exhibit will be taken down after Nov. 17, and given to the survivors.

"The Sisters at Heart Breast Cancer Group has another exhibit planned, and the three that were featured here are going to take their boards and use them for their exhibits," Riggs said.

The exhibit will be displayed in the lobby of the emergency room at Civista until Nov. 17.

jnazdin@somdnews.com