RAINBOW OF HOPE members gather for a photo in the future location of the group's meditation garden. Pictured are (from left) Elsie Alley, Wanda Cleary, 4-year-old Isabella Wyatt, Wayne Cleary, Betty Latham, Jim Robinson, Bette Kopenhafer, Willie Robinson, Donna James, Peggy Duncan, Nancy Ridgeway, Carl Williams, Jean Williams, Joe Potts, Shirley Harris, Dorothy Shaw, Linda Richardson, Rose Rector, Mattilene Blevins and Betty Spangler.

Rainbow of Hope Cancer Support Group celebrates its fifth anniversary

Learning that an individual has cancer is a difficult thing to hear, much less mentally process. In 2002, a group of people in the county battling the disease came together and began gathering in Sparta Restaurant each month.

Rainbow of Hope, as it came to be called, has been meeting for the last five years and has participated in parades and Relay for Life, and has visited the homes of fellow cancer patients to allow family members a night out, and offers support to the families of cancer victims at funerals. Meanwhile, the American Cancer Society sponsors the Wig Closet and cosmetologist Barbara Edwards is coordinator of the Look Better, Feel Better program both of which are available at Alleghany Wellness Center.

Rainbow of Hope Organizer Wanda Cleary also serves as the Reach for Recovery coordinator. She noted that Donna James and Peggy Duncan assist her with the latter program.

Benefits of Membership

Cleary and Secretary Dorothy Shaw shared what being a part of the group has meant to them. Shaw, a skin cancer survivor, explained that through the years, she has lost several family members to the disease. She first lost her father, Carl Anthony, to lung cancer and then lost her youngest sister, Opal Duncan.

 

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