Cancer survivor Heather Moore cherishes the ability to give back to others

Long before being diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2021, Oakland resident Heather Moore sadly had years of personal experience with cancer – nearly 18, in fact.

In late November 2003, Moore said goodbye to her sister Laurel Davis Jeffers, who lost her breast cancer battle at age 35. Six weeks before Laurel died, the sisters participated the Maine Breast Cancer Foundation’s annual luncheon and raised money to support patients receiving cancer treatment. Moore continued her fundraising efforts at MaineGeneral’s Walk for Hope for several years afterward, with her Walk teams raising and donating nearly $40,000 by her estimate.

While helping to support others, she never expected to travel the same path – until a routine mammogram showed something suspicious.

An ultrasound and biopsy later confirmed triple-positive breast cancer, different from her sister’s. Moore met with medical oncologist Dr. Lindsey Hathaway at the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, who referred her for an ultrasound of the lymph nodes under her arm. When the ultrasound showed the cancer had traveled to the lymph nodes, her treatment plan changed significantly.

Six chemotherapy treatments at the cancer center were followed by a lumpectomy and removal of three lymph nodes, 25 radiation treatments and continued infusions every three weeks until her last treatment in April 2022.

Opening up for help

A health care professional for more than 30 years, Moore was working as a case manager at the Alfond Center for Health when she was diagnosed and soon after could not continue working.

“I was lucky if I had the energy to get in the shower in the morning; that’s how bad it was,” she said.

While she made it through the physical challenges of her chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Moore said the period that followed was mentally challenging.

“That’s when I crashed emotionally and Dr. Hathaway was wonderful in providing support. She connected me with social worker Ruth Coffey, LCSW, which was so helpful,” she said. “You try to be stoic, knowing that you’re not supposed to feel good when you’re receiving treatment. But I think there’s an emotional breaking point for everyone, and that was mine.”

Giving back to others

After completing treatment, Moore needed a sense of purpose. While she could not return to her case manager role at the hospital, she knew that work experience, along with being a caregiver for her sister and a cancer patient herself, could fill a need she saw at the cancer center.

“I thought they could use me in some capacity, based on what I experienced, so I met with (Administrative Director of Oncology Services) Deb Bowden who’s a woman of vision,” she said. “Deb was already planning for the cancer center’s expansion to be able to provide more services for patients, and she created the position of holistic health care coordinator.”

Moore applied, interviewed and was hired for the position, which later became supervisor of the Center for Hope and Healing, an integral part of the cancer center’s expansion. In this role, she supervises the center’s licensed clinical social workers and concierge, helps develop programs and services to meet patients’ psychosocial needs and oversees and facilitates cancer support groups.

“It’s almost surreal with my background and everything I went through to now have the opportunity to give back to other cancer patients and their families,” she said. “It’s a great feeling to help people who are in the situation I was in. It means the world to me.”

Moore also hopes to help others beyond the cancer center’s walls as a marshal for MaineGeneral’s annual Day of Hope on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Augusta Civic Center, where she’ll share her cancer story.

The importance of hope

Moore acknowledged that during the darkest moments of her cancer journey, it sometimes was difficult to see and embrace hope. In those moments, the support she received from the cancer center staff offered it.

“As a cancer patient, hope was walking through the cancer center’s doors knowing I had – and still have – a team of people working to treat me medically, support me emotionally and help me financially,” she said. “Hope is knowing there are real-life angels at the cancer center to care for me and all of our patients.”

“Now, as an employee, I’m grateful to help patients through their own journey, be there for them when they’re in need and walk beside them each step of the way. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, ‘to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded.’”

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