December 26, 2011

With a stroke of a pen, one area breast cancer survivor is using her experience to making a difference for patients.

“Be encouraged and take one day at a time,” those are just some of the many encouraging words Sione Wade writes to patients at the University of Virginia Breast Cancer Center in Central Virginia.

“The first couple of lines say to cheer you or make you smile or warm your heart; just to make them feel better just to know that I'm there for them,” said Wade, a breast cancer survivor.

For the past five years Wade has been putting together breast cancer kits with books, a binder of information and a personalized note.

“It's mainly to encourage them. When you receive the diagnosis of cancer it's just overwhelming and you don't know what kind of treatment, whether to have surgery or not, it's just overwhelming,” she said.

Wade knows exactly what the cancer patients at UVa are going through because eight years ago also she found out she had breast cancer. Two days after her diagnosis she had a lumpectomy and later started taking medication.

Wade has been cancer-free ever since. She writes these letter to tell other women know they can beat it too.

While she doesn't get to meet the recipient of each kit, Wade says she's heard that her kind words have made a difference for patients.

“A lot of women said they appreciated my note, that it encouraged them and they just like all the items that are in the breast kit. It made them feel better,” she said.

That's the reason folks in the UVa Breast Cancer Center call Sione Wade a hero. She's been sharing comforting words for years and encouraging women to stay strong and never to give up.