Cynthia Rafferty

By TAMMY SKRDLANT
Hub Regional Editor

KEARNEY - A Kearney woman is helping cancer survivors find a light of hope.

"Whenever they call me and they have a patient who needs someone to talk to, I come," Cynthia Rafferty said. "Hopefully, I'll be able to give them a light of hope that there is life beyond (cancer)."

Rafferty said that when she was notified that she had been awarded the Freedom Award for voluntarism in the Medical/Health Category, she could think of many people who are more involved in the community than she is.

"I didn't really feel like it was something I deserve," she said.

In his nomination letter, her husband, Micheal, wrote: "Cynthia is a caring and compassionate woman who unconditionally gives her time to help other cancer patients and survivors. … She has been an inspiration to many. Cynthia faithfully believes that God gave her life to help others, and she has done so without hesitation. She truly exemplifies the meaning of a Good Samaritan."

Rafferty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988, when she was 34 years old. She had a bilateral mastectomy, in which both breasts were removed. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation.

At that time, she said, it was the most devastating thing she had gone through.

Fifteen months later, in September 1990, she was constantly fatigued, tired and started to experience bad bruising.

"The white blood cells, in my case, stopped producing," she said.

She was diagnosed with acute myelocytic leukemia, a fast-growing cancer. Her bone marrow stopped producing white blood cells.

"That, by far, was more difficult than breast cancer," she said.

She underwent three sets of treatments at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She needed a bone marrow transplant, but none of her seven siblings were a match. So, doctors used her own bone marrow.

SHE CAN NOW talk to people about being a transplant donor and recipient because she has been both, she said.

Her volunteer efforts started after she attended a support group called CanSurmount, which stands for "I can surmount what is in the road ahead of me."

"Getting together and understanding helped me to accept what I was dealing with," Rafferty said. "If nothing else good comes of this (volunteering), this would be the one thing -help someone else understand there is always hope."

RAFFERTY BECAME a Reach to Recovery volunteer in November 1994. Reach to Recovery is a nationwide program in which doctors contact volunteers when a cancer-related surgery is scheduled. Volunteers try to see the patients before surgery to offer support and information and to discuss additional options.

To be involved with Reach to Recovery, volunteers must have gone through either a mastectomy or a lumpectomy, Rafferty said.

She served on the American Cancer Society board, now called the community council, starting in 1995 and became a trainer in 1999.

SHE HELPED organize Kearney's Relay for Life from 1994 to 1999. She and Micheal still attend relays and organize teams. If they can't recruit anyone else for their team, then the two of them walk the entire 24 hours.

Rafferty also has contacted cancer patients on her own. Micheal, a state bank examiner, found out that an officer at a bank had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The woman's hospital didn't have a Reach to Recovery program, so no one had visited with her about it. Rafferty contacted the woman long-distance, and the two of them talked.

"(The hospital) didn't have the program there," Rafferty said. "It's very important if we get 75 or 90 percent participation from doctors in all Nebraska communities. This is such a good program."

SHE SAID GOOD Samaritan Hospital in Kearney has 100 percent participation among doctors.

Recovering from cancer has changed her spirit and attitude about life, she said. "How you're reacting to what's happening to you-that affects the outcome."

She relies, in part, on her faith for support and said she wouldn't have made it through without God.

"God has led me to do this. God's spirit was within me. Because of the strength I drew from him, I felt at peace."

e-mail to:

tammy.skrdlant@kearneyhub.com