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Nancy Graham, a member of the N.C. Cancer Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Board, says “this Board is a working Board, doing more and more to make a difference for the patients and families. We’re not a Board that sits and says hello to each other every two months. We’re actively involved in many aspects of the cancer hospital.”

Nancy drives two hours from Advance, NC, to come to Chapel Hill and cherishes her time here. “I look forward to each Board meeting. I get to sit with people who have had the same journey, some quite a bit more than others. We look at things the same way.”

Nancy speaks from experience as a cancer patient treated at UNC. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. “I had always been conscientious about having mammograms and was due to have one in a month. I had an accidental fall and felt something in my breast that wasn’t right.”

She saw her local physician and then came to UNC Lineberger for a second opinion at the suggestion of her daughter. “From the minute I got there I knew I was in the right place,” she recalls. Her physicians were surgical oncologist Dr. Keith Amos, medical oncologist Dr. Lisa Carey and radiation oncologist Dr. Jan Halle. “I adore them. We started out in the Gravely building, so it wasn’t real pretty, but it didn’t matter because what mattered were the doctors.”

Nancy had surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and a year of Herceptin. She recalls a moment when her spirits were low. “It was during my treatment, and I was a wreck because of side effects. Dr. Amos called me to see how I was doing. I told him that I wasn’t doing that well. He said to me, “Nancy, let me say this to you. The cancer is gone. I took it out. It’s not there anymore. And now all we’re doing is making sure it never comes back.’ And that’s all I needed to hear. Just that extra effort on Dr. Amos’ part made a huge difference.

“After coming to Lineberger for treatment, I never looked back. The approach that Lineberger has to cancer care- the team approach where everyone sat down at the same table and discussed my case- made it easier, even though I had to drive quite a distance to Chapel Hill.”

Nancy thinks it’s important to help UNC Lineberger. “When I was asked to serve on the Patient and Family Advisory Board I immediately said yes. It’s a way for me to give back.” Nancy and her husband, Bill, had previously served on the UNC Lineberger Board of Visitors at the suggestion of her husband’s uncle, Page Graham, who had served on the Lineberger Board.

On the Patient and Advisory Board, Nancy has served on a committee that reviewed patient materials and on a committee that reviewed patient materials and on a committee that made revisions in a proposal for securing televisions for all of the waiting rooms. “One of my favorite activities was helping to serve the Thanksgiving lunch. It was a wonderful day.”

And Nancy enjoys every day. “After having cancer, you enjoy each day, whatever is in that day. I don’t see things in the same way. I find that I am much more tolerant of people and their different idiosyncrasies. When you get cancer, it’s like your body is broken up in pieces, and once you get through treatment, it’s put back together, but it’s never the same.”

That changed perspective is what she treasures about the Advisory Board. “Each Board member knows this experience, and I feel at home with them. Because of our cancer journey, we want to do more and more to help.”