Local Support Groups and Organizations

The following is a partial list of local support groups in the Delaware Valley area.  Your medical center may also provide educational programs, support groups, or individual psycho-social services for ovarian cancer patients and/or family members.  If you would like to list a support group here, e-mail us at DelawareValley@ovarian.org.

NOCC 'Talking It Ovar' Support Network
Whether newly diagnosed or a long-term survivor, you can receive caring and confidential peer-to-peer support from fellow survivors.  Contact the Delaware Valley Chapter at 215-997-8075 or DelawareValley@ovarian.org.  If you are an ovarian cancer survivor and would like to provide peer-to-peer support to fellow survivors, please let us know.

Teal Talk
'Teal Talk' is a website ovarian cancer community that was created by Eric Jester, son of Lynn Jester, a State of Delaware ovarian cancer survivor.  The website is a discussion-based website and members of 'Teal Talk' are from all over the world.  This is a great site if you just need someone to talk to or share your experiences with or to gather information pertaining to ovarian cancer.  Visit their website at www.TealTalk.com/Forum.

The Wellness Community
The Wellness Community offers a variety of services including psycho-social support groups, educational programs, nutrition and exercise classes, social events, and informational networking groups for cancer patients and family members.  Services are free of charge and area provided in a home-like setting.  To contact the Philadelphia-Fairmount Park Wellness Community call 215-879-7733.

Gilda's Club
Gilda's Club provides a place where people with cancer and their families and friends can join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to medical care.  Gilda's Club serves the Delaware Valley area and for more information call 215-441-3290.

American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society Philadelphia Office provides a wide variety of services including educational programs, support groups, and community-based referrals for everything from wigs to transportation.  For more information call 215-985-5400 or visit their website www.cancer.org.

Health Forum
The Health Forum local office is staffed with licensed professional offering support/therapy groups for cancer patients.  The office is located at 505 Old York Road, Suite #100, in Jenkintown, PA.  For more information call 215-887-6669.

Holy Redeemer Women's Health Center
The Huntingdon Valley Center offers a variety of women's health services, including gynecologic cancer support groups.  The center is located at 821 Huntingdon Pike in Huntingdon Valley, PA.  For more information call 215-214-0650.

Living with Dignity
Living with Dignity provides confidential, one-on-one support for cancer patients and their families and offers counseling and emotional support via professional oncology social workers, professionally-led support groups, retreats, and referrals.  Offices in New Jersey and Philadelphia.  For more information call 973-993-1466 or 973-220-2990 or visit their website www.cancercounseling.org.

MANNA
Manna provides nutritous meals, free of charge and delivered to the home, for people who have been diagnosed with cancer and who are undergoing treatment.  For more information, call 215-496-2662, Extension 117 or visit their website www.mannapa.org.

The Helen F. Graham Cancer Center
The Helen F. Graham Cancer Center is located on the grounds of the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware.  For more information call 302-623-4500 or visit their website at www.christianacare.org.

Cancer Care Connection
The Cancer Care Connection is located at 1 Innovation Way, Suite 300, Delaware Technology Park in Newark, Delaware.  For more information, call 302-266-8050 or visit their website at www.cancercareconnection.org.

Delaware Pain Initiative
The Delaware Pain Initiative is located at 1 Innovation Way, Suite 303, Delaware Technology Park in Newark, Delaware.  For more information, call 302-292-1616 or visit their website at www.endpain.org.

New Jersey Legislative News

PolitickerNJ.com

October 6, 2009

GREENSTEIN / VAINIERI HUTTLE BILL RAISING OVARIAN CANCER AWARENESS NOW LAW

By thester

GREENSTEIN / VAINIERI HUTTLE BILL RAISING OVARIAN CANCER AWARENESS NOW LAW

(TRENTON) – Legislation sponsored by Assemblywomen Linda Greenstein and Valerie Vainieri Huttle to promote awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer has been signed into law by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The bill directs the governor to annually issue a proclamation designating February as \"Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month\" and calling upon public officials, private organizations, the health care community and New Jerseyans to increase knowledge of the symptoms of the often-deadly disease.

“When ovarian cancer is found and treated in its earliest stages, the five-year survival rate is 95 percent, but tragically most women who suffer from ovarian cancer aren’t diagnosed until the later stages of the cancer when the disease has spread,” said Greenstein (D-Middlesex/Mercer). “Early detection and treatment often mean the difference between life and death, so it’s important that we increase awareness of the factors that put certain women at a higher risk for the disease.“

“All cancer is insidious, but ovarian cancer symptoms can be vague and non-specific,” said Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen). “Women and their physicians often attribute them to more common conditions, and by the time the cancer is diagnosed the tumor has often spread beyond the ovaries, making the disease one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Anything we can do to raise awareness is the right thing.”

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death and the eighth most common type of cancer in America. About 20,000 women in the United States annually learn they have ovarian cancer, with about 14,700 dying from the disease. In New Jersey, the rate of new cases of ovarian cancer has annually been 13.3 and the mortality rate 8.6 for every 100,000 women.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than $2.2 billion is spent annually treating ovarian cancer in the United States.

While all women are at risk for ovarian cancer, about 90 percent of women who get the disease are 40 years of age or older, with most being 55 years of age or older. Additionally, more than half the deaths from ovarian cancer occur in women between the ages of 55 and 74 and about 25 percent of ovarian cancer deaths occur in women between 35 and 54 years of age.

Women at a higher risk for the disease include those with increased age, a personal history of breast cancer or a family history of breast, ovarian, uterine, colon or other gastrointestinal cancers and those who haven’t had children.

Cancer experts have advised that a set of health problems, including general abdominal discomfort or pain, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, frequent urination, loss of appetite, difficulty eating, feeling full after a meal, unexplained weight gain or loss and abdominal bleeding from the vagina may be early symptoms of ovarian cancer.

The sponsors noted there is no definitive prevention strategy to help combat the disease.

“Until a screening test is found, regular pelvic examinations and increased public awareness of the health problems that might indicate the onset of ovarian cancer may be the only ways to decrease a woman\'s overall risk of dying from it,” Greenstein said.

“Permanently designating February as ‘Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month’ in New Jersey is, quite simply, a way to promote awareness among the general public and the health care community of the symptoms, the importance of early detection and the risk factors associated with developing ovarian cancer,” said Vainieri Huttle.

The bill is also sponsored by Sens. Sean Kean and Andrew Ciesla and Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini.