Stories of hope

"Throughout this experience, I've been learning to take care of myself. Each new day presents so many possibilities."

Pam Everett

When Pam Everett was diagnosed with breast cancer, she kept it a secret from her family for three weeks. Her 34-year-old son was getting married for the first time. “He had waited, and he was so excited,” she says. Her doctors told her it was safe to keep the secret until after the wedding.

When she finally broke the news, Pam could tell her son that she was in good hands. “It's a real team approach at Providence,” she says. “The doctors are in touch with each other about a person's care. They all have input and they respect that input and they pass that along to the patient.”

Now a survivor, Pam encourages patients to take advantage of the nutrition and support services at Providence that helped her feel at ease and independent during her treatment. “In medicine, you hear so much that the point is to cure the patient. But it's not just the curing, it's also the healing and I mean that spiritually and emotionally,” Pam says. “When you're going through cancer, you lose a lot of your dignity, and you've got to get it back. It comes back slowly, and the wonderful people at Providence are there to help.”