Unity Hospital starts new breast cancer support group

FRIDLEY, Minn. 09/18/2008--Women with breast cancer are encouraged to attend a new support group at Unity Hospital. The group is in addition to the women’s breast cancer support group that has been meeting at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

The addition of this group provides another option and more convenience for women in the northwest metro. Similar to the Mercy support group, Unity’s support group will alternate open and guest speaker meeting formats.

At open meetings, both groups will begin to balance time for small and whole group discussions to address the wide range of needs and ages of those who attend.

"We especially encourage young women to come," says facilitator and survivor Karen Conradi-Jones. "We believe a mixture of women at different ages, diagnostic stages and length of survival makes for richer sharing, but we are also aware of the yearning of women dealing with cancer to talk to people who are in similar stages of life."

The first Unity breast cancer support group meeting is October 6 at 7 p.m. in Unity’s board room. No need to register, but call the Cancer Resource Center at 763-236-4040 with questions.

Unity’s group will meet consistently on the first Monday of each month, and Mercy’s group meets on the third Monday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Heart Center.

Unity Hospital in Fridley responds to a wide range of health care needs. Unity is part of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit family of hospitals, clinics and other care services dedicated to meeting the lifelong health care needs of communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

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