Grief group has been a great tool for me since losing my brother. I felt very isolated in my feelings until I went to group.

When you come into Gilda’s Club, people know exactly what you’re talking about, there’s no explanation, they get it. You support one another, you cry together, you laugh together, you celebrate the small victories together, you grieve together. I can’t express how lucky we are to have Gilda’s in our community.

Before I started at Gilda's, I really thought I did not need the help... The people in your group understand what you are going through... A lot of people do not know what Gilda's is about. You can cry, you can laugh, you can be yourself, and they are just there for you.

You truly begin to understand what it means to live “one day at a time”. That phrase always sounded so cliché to me, it now has more meaning to me than ever before.

When we first came to Gilda’s Club, they asked what I was hoping for and I told them I just wanted to laugh again. The time we were coming here, we started to laugh again. I would walk across broken glass for Gilda’s Club, do anything that I could, because we never paid a penny for any of the stuff that Gilda’s Club did for us, but what they gave us was priceless.

At Gilda’s Club… my husband found the family away from family.

Gilda’s Club is an amazing place for cancer patients and survivors, for their children. Although our journeys are all very different, we are coming together for not only us but for our families as well. It takes a village to go through this cancer journey. It is just amazing how Gilda’s Club spreads the love, hope and support in the community.

Gilda’s Club got me ready for my 1st recurrence and then second and third. The people there…you can be raw, you can joke, we laugh, and we cry. I’ve met life-changing friends and we’ve walked together, and we’ve also lost together. There are people that understand at Gilda’s, and they never let us feel alone.

Gilda’s Club offered a place for my kids to just be kids at Noogieland, it was a place my husband could come, be with a group of other family members, and be honest and say things that perhaps he wasn’t comfortable saying in my presence and not have to worry about being strong. And for me, it allowed me to be with other cancer survivors and be honest and be real.

It took me a while to come, but after you walk in here…it is just awesome. Everyone here is fantastic and you are finally with people that understand what you are going through. There’s a comradery here that is unlike any other. People that come here are all so different but everyone gets you. It just makes you feel like you belong.

It helped me come out of my shell because I was able to talk to someone who was having the same experience or similar experience that I was having. It was easier for me to have that communication with someone who could understand if I said something and not take it as a negative. The healing process that Gilda’s gives you is not a physical one, but it is a mental and emotional one. It’s one that will help you to understand that you’re not alone.

Coming to Gilda’s Club has been a blessing. The positive people rub off on me and I have become more positive. They have helped me not focus on cancer and its side effects and find joy in daily activities.