Since being diagnosed with a form of bone marrow cancer a decade ago, Bob Jones has learned that half the battle is taking care of mental health.
“You have these thoughts that can be scary and they can be frightening,” he said. “You’ve got these thoughts rattling around in your head and they just amplify themselves until you can get them out, and talk to people.”
With a new support group, he hopes to help others do just that.
Jones will be co-leading a new peer support group for people with blood cancers and their caregivers. The monthly group will meet for the first time on Wednesday, Sept. 4, at Broadway Commons, 1300 Broadway St. N.E. from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
The Salem Health Cancer Center already hosts a range of support groups and mental health counseling for people with cancer, but no local meetings focus on blood cancers. They make up about 9% of new cancer cases, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
In April, Jones was diagnosed with lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, on top of his other diagnosis.
“I’ve been through lots of different treatments. I’m doing pretty well, but neither of these cancers ever go away,” he said.
Most blood cancers stick around despite treatments, he said, a prognosis that is hard to bear alone.
Jones, who is 75, first had the idea to form a support group last month while talking with a friend who’s a caregiver for someone with blood cancer.
“We don’t have any,” Jones said. “I couldn’t go into a prostate cancer group and find anybody who could share my experience or understand my experience. So that’s why we need to have a group where we have that commonality.”
The group is open to caregivers of people with blood cancers, who Jones said also need support.
“They really want the patient to get better, but they can’t do anything about it. They watch and assist, and that has its own problems with mental health,” he said.
Jones, another cancer patient and a caregiver will lead the group.
So far, Jones has started spreading the word at the Salem Cancer Institute and his oncologist’s office, to mention to patients when it’s appropriate. He’s working with Salem Hospital to try to get a permanent location for the meetings on-campus.
“It’s really good to be talking to your peers, the people who are in the pressure cooker with you,” he said.
For questions, or to register to join the group, email Jones at [email protected]. Each attendee should be vaccinated against Covid due to the members being immunocompromised, he said.
His plan for the group is simple. Support will come from sharing experiences and finding common ground.
“We’ll just get together and start talking,” he said. “Usually somebody has something to say.”
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
