Winchester Hospital Holds Twelfth Annual Celebration of National Cancer Survivors Day

When her brother passed away seven years ago from esophageal cancer, Lydia Brown started attending Winchester Hospital’s National Cancer Survivors Day as a way to honor his memory. But now Brown attends the celebration as a survivor herself after she was diagnosed with uterine cancer several years ago.

The Burlington resident has now been cancer free for two years.

“When you go to cancer treatment you can feel very alone,” Brown said. “But then you come to this event, you walk through the doors and you see all these people. You don’t realize so many people have been affected by this disease. It’s just so nice to see that you’re not alone. There’s this whole community here for you.”

Brown was one of approximately 250 cancer survivors, physicians, staff, friends and family members who gathered on Tuesday, June 4 for Winchester Hospital’s 12th annual celebration of National Cancer Survivors Day, offering one another support and encouragement in their shared fight against cancer. The event took place at the Crowne Plaza in Woburn.

For Brown, the evening is a chance to see cancer survivors and the doctors who helped save her life.

“I love coming to this event,” Brown said. “You see many of the same people year after year. You see them surviving.”

Winchester Hospital’s annual celebration of National Cancer Survivors Day brings together breast cancer patients of the hospital’s Breast Care Center in Woburn and patients living with, and in remission from various cancers treated hospital-wide through the Center for Cancer Care at Winchester Hospital. During this year’s Here Comes the Sun-themed celebration, Winchester Hospital physicians paid tribute to their patients’ compassionate support of one another and bravery in fighting the disease.

“It’s a pleasure to see more and more survivors return each year,” said breast surgeon and Winchester resident, Nayomi Edirisinghe, MD.

For breast cancer survivor Fran Cheney of North Reading, it’s an opportunity to catch up with old friends.

“I never miss this night,” Cheney said. “It’s nice to see all these cancer survivors.”

To learn more or register for a support group at Winchester Hospital, call (781) 756-4760. For more information about Winchester Hospital’s Center for Cancer Care, call (781) 756-5058. To learn more about the Breast Care Center, call (781) 756-2308.

About Winchester Hospital

Winchester Hospital is the first hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet recognition, the American Nurses Association’s highest honor for nursing excellence, three times. As the northwest suburban Boston area’s leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, oncology, gastroenterology, rehabilitation, radiation oncology, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Boston Children’s Hospital, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org.