Today, it seems the fabric of life is often soaked in terrible stories of grief. With the recent events of cataclysmic weather in the form of three hurricanes and the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas, Nev., it is tough to dodge terrible news and look forward to tomorrow. For a group of people meeting in Machias, the stories shared were not about tragedy, but about hope, and about all of their dreams looking towards tomorrow.
     The 10th annual Washington County Cancer Conference was held at the Lee Pellon Center on October 6. The information presented by speakers, support specialists and medical advisors on hand throughout the day provided the more than 60 people in attendance with medical updates, breakthroughs, counseling services and, most importantly, hope.
     Receiving recognition from an audience in the form of a standing ovation is really nothing new for Bill Nemitz. An accomplished writer and award‑winning journalist who has traveled the world telling it like it is, Nemitz gave this year's keynote address, "My Family Narrative: From Despair to Hope." It was stirring in both depth and emotion as Nemitz spoke of his journey, one that throughout his life was interrupted from time to time by a phone call. "A call coming at two in the morning can't be good news," Nemitz said with a slight smile. It wasn't.
     His earliest recollection of cancer was as a four-year‑old, when he lost his grandmother to breast cancer and did not understand how she could get sick and leave. And then the phone calls began. While at his first job as a journalist, Nemitz got a call from his parents telling him his sister, Beth, was diagnosed with cancer. Before she died, he admits to kidnapping her, with hospital approval, to spend one last Thanksgiving with the family. "It was her last and the family's best," says Nemitz.       
     Then, while making college visits with his daughter, he got the call that sister Anne, "the leader of us all," was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Over the four years she fought the battle she developed a course to teach others how to deal with dying patients. He spoke about a family struggling to make sense of it all and pushing on, phone call after phone call. "Because life does go on, it must, it has to," Nemitz said.
     And then, another phone call, he had cancer. In 2003, Nemitz was diagnosed with CLL, a very slow-progressing type of cancer. On the heels of successful treatment, he continued raising a family and writing. In 2015, he developed pain under his arm and, after further tests, was diagnosed with stage four melanoma. When Nemitz got the call, he remembers his doctor saying, "This is bad." After many procedures and hospital stays, his only hope was immunotherapy. Eight months later, too sick to continue treatment, it was decided to stop, watch and wait. "I no longer like the term watchful waiting. I would rather call it hopeful living," Nemitz said. His cancer at the moment is under control.
     Nemitz ended by saying, "My remaining siblings think I am a miracle, but I know better. I am here because of people like you. Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for when I am holding my 18‑month-old grandson, Gus, and await the arrival of my second grandchild. I look to the future not with fear, but with hope. My reunion with grandma will have to wait. I am still here."

Supporting one another
     During this year's patient panel, five people told their own stories; three of them were family members, a mother and her two daughters. The main message of all the stories was of the importance of helping one another. Whether it's driving to appointments, household chores, giving a sister one last holiday, or simply listening when needed, their stories were of a brother helping a sister, a sister helping a mother, and of husbands helping wives. Throughout the day it was made clear that patients and survivors are great caregivers because they lived it every day and know what someone needs when their phone call comes.
     Sandy Lyon, one of the sisters from the panel, gave special acknowledgment to her patient navigator, Marianne Moore, for being her advisor and friend. Moore, herself a cancer survivor, has teamed up with Angela Fochesato in establishing Downeast Cancer Patient Navigators. Made possible through a partnership between Healthy Acadia and the Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center, the program assists in guiding cancer patients and their families through the cancer journey.
     Dr. Neil Corsen from the Maine Medical Center presented information regarding advancements being made in preventing lung cancer through early detection. The information provided by Deborah de Moulpied from the Anti‑Cancer Lifestyle Program regarding making a home cancer free engaged the audience and spurred many questions when the presentation was over. "We cannot have a cancer-free home, but we can impact our own personal environment, the home, with knowledge and by taking action," Moulpied said.
     For Tami Dinsmore, an LPN/CCM with the Regional Medical Center at Lubec, and Michael Reisman, executive director of the Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center, this year was just as magical as those years prior. Both have been here from the beginning, making reality from a desire Keith Fox had to expand this conference to Washington County. In memory of Fox, Dinsmore gave him praise and spoke of his own personal fight with cancer while lighting a single white candle in his memory. "This day always makes me nervous," says Dinsmore. "The planning, the coordination of it all, but in the end it always turns out to be such a privilege, and so, so special, to hear these stories of hope, knowing the impact it will have on others."