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Her Mission: Empowering Patients

PATTY KIM

Published: September 20, 2007

Coordinating the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute's FACTors Breast Cancer Education Conference is more than just a project for breast cancer survivor Stena Campagna.

"It's really become my mission and my passion. I really do feel that this was what I was meant to do, following my diagnosis and recovery," she says. "Showing people that I'm OK, and I can now do this. And you can be OK. You can empower yourself and get a lot more information."

Campagna, 58, outreach and FACTors coordinator, was treated at Moffitt. Because of her fortunate prognosis and treatment, she decided she wanted to work at the cancer center. "Things happen for a reason," she says.

Campagna is expecting 400 people — from the newly diagnosed to longtime survivors — and 75 staff and volunteers Sept. 29 at the Hyatt Regency Tampa. She decided to take the conference outside of Moffitt because "people don't want to come back to the hospital where they had their treatment, as wonderful as we are."

Register through Wednesday by calling (813) 745-4988. So what can attendees expect? Cancer survivor Wendy Harpham, doctor of internal medicine, will be the keynote speaker. Survivor Geralyn Lucas, who wrote "Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy," which was turned into a Lifetime movie, will be this year's special guest speaker.

The conference will include a doctors Q-and-A panel, workshops, exhibitors, gift baskets, door prizes and an "Oprah-like moment," Campagna says.

"This is a day where they can forget about their treatment and just have some fun and listen and learn," Campagna says. "I want them to come away with really having their spirits lifted. I want them to be able to have gained new knowledge and new information and new resources. And I want them to make new friends.

"One of the things we do well as women is we bond very well. We are very nurturing. We reach out to each other, and that's one of the things this conference facilitates."

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