Finding a way to help others

<p>The disease took nearly every penny she had. In 2004, Diana Moore was living in Tucson, Arizona — more than 1,000 miles from her children in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Maryland — when she went in for an annual mammogram.</p><p>The week of Thanksgiving, she was diagnosed with cancer.</p><p>Over the next year, the disease took her money, her job, her security in her home and nearly caused her to file for bankruptcy. She worked two jobs for most of her time in treatment to afford surgery and radiation, and she lost her full-time job because of her need to get off work early for appointments. She moved across the country to a state that had a lower cost of living.</p><p>But breast cancer never robbed her of her faith, and she credits church friends with being essential in her recovery.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>Now, 14 years later, she lives in Franklin with her dogs, near her daughter and grandchildren, and has become a foster parent to area children in need. And she wants to use what she went through to help local cancer patients and survivors find support.</p><p>Moore, 66, worked in health care most of her life, helping people with their teeth as a dental assistant. She knew the importance of regular check-ups and health maintenance.</p><p>In 2004, she went into her annual mammogram with no worries. She felt healthy and happy with life. Doctors called after her mammogram. They found a spot that needed another look.</p><p>&quot;I said, ‘Sure, I will come back.’ I was not worried at all,&quot; she said.</p><p>Doctors performed a cone biopsy by inserting a needle into the suspected cancer site to take a sample and have it tested. They called her back later that week, just before Thanksgiving. She was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. The cancer was against her chest wall.</p><p>&quot;I said, ‘What do I do?’&quot; she said.</p><p>Doctors walked her through her options, which ranged from having a lumpectomy and going through radiation and chemotherapy treatments to having a mastectomy. Moore chose a lumpectomy and met with a surgeon. On the day of her surgery, she could not be seen without pre-paying $300. She didn’t have the money and didn’t know she needed it until she arrived.</p><p>A member of her church brought her to the surgery and paid the $300 deposit, allowing her treatment to continue. The church is the reason she got through the ordeal, Moore said. Members of her church in Arizona brought her meals, helped her wrap bandages around her incision site and checked on her.</p><p>&quot;My church was awesome,&quot; she said.</p><p>After the surgery she received 31 radiation treatments. Once she finished radiation, she still needed chemotherapy.</p><p>Once a week, she would leave work early to make her 4:30 p.m. radiation treatments. After a few weeks, she lost her job and her health insurance. Her boss told her that her having to leave work early did not work with the hours the office operated.</p><p>Moore had no idea how she was going to pay her medical bills, her $900 monthly mortgage or buy groceries for herself, she said. She got a part-time job at a convenience store, making $7 an hour. Her manager worked with her to make sure she was off when she needed treatments. His compassion helped her get through, she said.</p><p>&quot;I will never forget that guy; his name was Gene,&quot; she said.</p><p>Then she found a second part-time job working in an office. Both jobs were still not enough to live on and pay for cancer treatments, which by the end had cost her about $50,000. And she was dealing with red, irritated skin from radiation, where her only relief was Aquaphor. Her exhaustion from the radiation treatments was exacerbated by her two jobs, she said.</p><p>&quot;Cancer brought me this close to bankruptcy,&quot; she said. She had to ask for help. Her son gave her money to make a house payment. A friend loaned her $1,000. But bills from the radiation treatment were still rolling in. The situation was not sustainable, Moore said.</p><p>&quot;All of the money issues kept getting worse and worse,&quot; she said. She decided to sell her home of nearly 10 years and move to Pennsylvania, where the cost of living was cheaper, she could be near family and where a new grandchild had just been born.</p><p>She still had to continue her treatment, taking chemotherapy pills for about seven years, until she was deemed cancer free. Last fall, she decided to move to Franklin to be near her daughter and other grandchildren.</p><p>She has started finding her own life around Franklin. She spends time at the Active Adult Center and hopes to start a support group at Grace United Methodist Church, where she attends.</p><p>Her church friends in Arizona helped her through her cancer ordeal. She wants to offer that same support to local residents in need. Since her bout with cancer, she has resolved to live a more peaceful life.</p><p>Moore believes that cancer cells thrive on stress, and she does what she can to reduce her stress level. She has begun fostering young children in her home in Franklin to help others in the community.</p><p>More than a decade after she was first diagnosed, she is still terrified to get her annual mammogram. &quot;What will they find?&quot; she said. &quot;I want to live my life and not spend my life finding ways to pay for doctors and hospitals and medical facilities.&quot;</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="THE MOORE FILE:" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Diana Moore</p><p>City of residence: Franklin</p><p>Age: 66</p><p>Type of cancer: Breast</p><p>When diagnosed: November 2004</p><p>What cancer taught me: &quot;More compassion, I think I am a better listener.&quot;</p><p>How has having cancer changed you?</p><p>It has taught me more compassion. I am a better listener. I had cancer close to my heart and now it is closer. I want to be a part of a cancer type support group.</p><p>What would you tell someone just diagnosed with cancer?</p><p>Sit together and breathe. I say together because I know how much I needed someone to be there that day. And I say breathe, if you don’t breathe you will panic.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]