Staff report

Judith Smith, director of Port Arthur’s Health Department, said a support group for breast cancer survivors would launch at 6 p.m. Monday at the Port Arthur Public Library, 4615 Ninth Ave.

Smith said her department would partner in the effort with Gift of Life, a Beaumont-based, non-profit support organization for those with cancer. Smith, herself a breast cancer survivor, serves on the Gift of Life board.

“They’ve always had a breast-cancer survivor group in Beaumont,” said Smith, a registered nurse. “As I heard about women in Port Arthur with breast cancer, I thought it might be a good idea to have survivor meetings here.”

Smith said the idea would be to bolster survivors and their families with speakers who might address education and nutrition issues and provide emotional and spiritual support. She said the newly reopened Port Arthur Public Library has meeting space, which the group will use.

Smith said the meetings would last an hour, and she said she would solicit ideas from those who attend about how they want this organization — as yet, it is unnamed — to evolve.

“We’ll get together and see what the women would like to do in the meetings,” she said. Then they’ll develop goals and purposes for the hour-long meetings, determine how often the group might meet and move forward.

She said notices for the meetings have been posted on the city’s website and on the Health Department’s Facebook page.

 

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