CANCER SUPPORT GROUPS TELE-EDUCATION:
Providing Health and Wellness
Information to Cancer Survivors
and Health Care Professionals
Survival is just one goal for cancer patients. These monthly multi-site video gatherings offer
patients information in Spanish and English to help them live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
K
athie McHugh is a breast cancer
survivor, grateful and proud to be seven
years out from the day she was diagnosed.
She also likes to describe herself as “a very
thirsty information seeker,” who feels her
health and well-being have been greatly
enhanced by monthly meetings of an
educational program called ¡Vida!.
¡Vida! – the name comes from the Spanish
word for life – began with grant support
from the Susan G. Komen Foundation in
2008.
“¡Vida! grew out of our work with breast
cancer survivors who told us that they
wanted information to help them not
just survive, but to be healthy and live
well,” says Ana Maria Lopez, MD, MPH,
who is ¡Vida! director, medical director of
the Arizona Telemedicine Program, and
a University of Arizona Cancer Center
oncologist who specializes in breast cancer.
“As patients, they need and want to be well
prepared to take charge of their health.”
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Left to Right: ¡Vida! volunteer Isela Macias, volunteer
Kathie McHugh, ¡Vida! program coordinator Bettina
Hofacre, volun Y\