“Now what? How do I get my energy back?”
“What can I do to prevent getting cancer again and treat the debilitating effects of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery?”
“What kind of doctor will help me heal and know how to treat my whole health — my heart, bones, skin, hormones, thinking and emotions that were all affected by my treatment?”
Before the nonprofit organization Back in the Swing was established in Kansas City in 2003, it was difficult to find the answers to these important questions.
But that has all changed, thanks to the support of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and more than 800 area retailers, as well as thousands of caring bistate residents: volunteers, consumers, health-care providers, sponsors and media.
Together, they support our annual “experiential” shopping fundraiser, called “Back in the Swing Retail Therapy,” every October.
Together, they have helped Kansas City become a flagship for the nation in establishing a new kind of post-treatment survivorship care as the standard of care after breast cancer.
Why is this kind of care so important for our nation’s more than 2 million breast cancer survivors?
Because not having access to this kind of comprehensive, coordinated, individualized health care compromises the quality of their lives for the rest of their lives.
Not getting this kind of health care increases the risk for cancer recurrence and other medical complications, such as heart disease and osteoporosis, as well as depression and anxiety.
Breast cancer survivors — indeed, all cancer survivors — deserve access to this groundbreaking new health care that helps them get and stay “back in the swing” of life.
Fortunately, Kansas Citians have recognized this fact of life for the one in eight women (and many men as well) who will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes.
Today, 100 percent of the funds raised by Back in the Swing stays in Kansas City to start and sustain the most complete citywide, comprehensive, clinical and supportive care network of lifelong survivorship programs and research in America.
Grantees in 2007 included St. Luke’s Medical Center, Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Truman Medical Center, KU Cancer Center, North Kansas City Hospital, Cancer Action and Turning Point.
Back in the Swing invites the nation’s breast cancer survivors; their families and advocates; and the medical and supportive care community of doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists and others to make personalized clinical survivorship care the “next step” after treatment — making joy and good health the expectation, not the exception, in every community in America.
One only needs to look here in the heart of America (and online at BackintheSwing.org) to see that it’s possible.
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