Many Canadians will experience cancer in their lifetimes – for Rod Mitchell Chicorli, the important thing is that no one should have to go through it alone.
Mitchell Chicorli is the founder and executive director of the new Cancer Connex group that will soon begin meeting locally – the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. in Cobourg at Trinity United Church (284 Division St.), starting Oct 7.
It's something the cancer community does not now enjoy, he said, “an all-inclusive discussion-support group for survivors, patients, newly diagnosed patients, families, caregivers.”
He also finds there are a number of cancer support groups targeted to specific kinds of cancer like breast cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer.
“I have esophageal cancer – there's no group for that,” he pointed out.
“You can get on chatlines and phone lines offered by the Canadian Cancer Society and certain government agencies, but it's not in-person. There's no face value. I think a bricks-and-mortar facility with support groups is magical.”
Mitchell Chicorli has had experiences of his own with support groups, all of them positive and helpful. Hearing other people's stories and experiences and how they changed their lives over the years because of what they get from support groups has been life-changing.
For Cancer Connex, he sees a care-and-share program that facilitates discussions around whatever issues people are going through.
It would have been a godsend for him last March, when he was recovering from his operation. At the time, he was living with his son in Bradford (near Barrie) and couldn't find any such thing in either community.
In August 2017, he was diagnosed with a swift-moving cancer that left little room for hope. Within six weeks, he was living at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Lodge. He sold his house, wound up his business, liquidated all his assets, and earmarked 50% for each of his two children if he didn't survive.
With surgery scheduled in March, he began seven weeks of chemo and radiation in advance in a bid to shrink the tumour. Following surgery, he would spend two months in intensive care – after which, realizing he had no home, he moved in with his son.
Having some familiarity with Cobourg, Mitchell Chicorli bought a condo in town that was just being completed and moved in on Canada Day last year. Emerging from two years of illness and doctors and upheaval, he realized he had to build a completely new life for himself.
His doctor's advice could be summed up in three words: don't stew – do!
Volunteering at Northumberland 89.7 was a start, and he went on to enjoy curling and working with Northumberland Players. But he still nurtured the hope of helping people with cancer in a way he had not been able to count on for himself.
Thanks to his cancer experience, he is living a life completely changed, with nothing in it the same as it was before. It seemed the right time to make a personal inventory, and he committed to paper his personal and emotional assets. He knew how to start up and promote a business, and he decided those skills could be put to use to get Cancer Connex on track.
The spelling for example – Mitchell Chicorli was trying for a smooth-flowing urban-feeling title that would be effective as a brand name.
And Cobourg is just the first stop for Cancer Connex. He hopes to get chapters going across the province, if not the country. He has had expressions of interest from Princess Margaret and Sunnybrook hospitals in establishing chapters there if the Cobourg model is successful.
Of which he has no doubt. He fully expects to be able to provide something of value for local residents that he can expand to help people in communities beyond.
But for now, things are just getting started in Cobourg. If it's the first Monday of the month (any month, year-round), you can drop in at 7 p.m. at Trinity United Church (284 Division St., Cobourg) for a warm welcome and any kind of support you may need. No fees apply, and there's even free parking.
Building up to the big day, Mitchell Chicorli has been supported in his preparations by a generous grant from Cameco as he spent the summer making connections with every appropriate facility from Lakeridge Health in Oshawa to Peterborough to Northumberland Hills Hospital, including the Northumberland Family Health Team and the Northumberland-Port Hope Community Health Centre. He will be making presentations to staff at the latter two facilities in September and is finding strategic locations for posters and rack cards (countless doctors' offices and targeted businesses such as pharmacies and popular restaurants.
The website and Facebook page are up, he added.
“I am structuring these meetings practical-facilitator-style, with a discussion format used by many groups.”
He believes his own experiences to be an excellent asset for a facilitator, both in the business world and as a cancer survivor. He is planning that all-important first meeting as if it were a crucial gig for a fledgling band – plan, practice, get all the ducks in a row and then, when the curtain rises, deliver big-time.
He will also leave plenty of time for that vital sharing of stories, and is making plans to get everyone involved and engaged.
“People who come to our meetings will know you are not alone in this fight. It makes a difference that people can't comprehend unless you are there, and that's the reason I am doing it.
“If you can sit with a group of people who have experienced the same drama, the same honour, the same striving to get better in the same room, there's a magic you walk away with – and you walk away a lot stronger.”
For more information, visit www.cancerconnex.com or call 905-372-7535 or 416-802-1166.