Suzanne Hengsen is always late for support group – intentionally so. She’s got to squeeze it into her lunch hour on a regular workday when every moment counts. But as harried as she feels and as hard as it is to find an empty seat, getting here is always tremendous relief. Like many women in their early 40s, Hengsen is balancing a full-time job, a husband and regular trips to the gym. She’s also undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
“Most women my age are not facing anything like this, so a lot of times I feel alienated. But here,” she says, gesturing to the crowded conference room, “I don’t have to explain anything to anyone about the cancer. Everyone in this room understands.”
A professor, a retiree, a nurse, a physician, a full-time mom – the women of the Making Today Count support group have different stories, but they all have one thing in common: They each have “metastatic cancer,” a cancer that has spread throughout their body. All of them know what it’s like to live with a terminal disease.