Cancer support in your backyard

Breast-cancer support services in our backyard are a phone call or cyber click away:

American Cancer Society – Look Good Feel Better

Look Good Feel Better is a free, two-hour workshop for women undergoing cancer treatment.

Volunteer cosmetologists teach free beauty techniques to cancer patients in order to improve their self-image, appearance, and quality of life.

The program is available in Brooklyn at:

• Coney Island Hospital

• SUNY Downstate Medical Center

• Kings County Hospital Center

• Maimonides Medical Center – Maimonides Cancer Center

• New York Methodist Hospital

• Woodhull Medical Center – New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation

• Hematology Oncology Associates of Brooklyn

• NYU Lutheran Medical Center-NYU Lutheran Family Health Centers

For more information, schedules, and to register, call the American Cancer Society at (800) 395–LOOK (5665).

Online support

Cancer Survivors Network (www.csn.cancer.org) is an online community by and for people with cancer and their families. Find and connect with others through member search, discussion boards, chat rooms, and private network e-mail. Create your own personal space to tell others about yourself, share photos and audio, start an online journal (blog), contribute resources, and more.

I Can Cope Online (www.cancer.org) is a quick, easy way to learn important facts and practical tips about cancer and related issues. There is never any charge to participate, and you set the pace, whenever and wherever is most convenient for you.

MyLifeLine.org (www.mylifeline.org) allows cancer patients and caregivers to connect with family and friends, allowing them to share their cancer journey, get support, and focus on healing. When you set up a free webpage, you can share updates and photos with selected family and friends in one secure place; get the help you need by organizing meals, rides to treatment, and more through the Helping Calendar; feel empowered by messages of love and support from friends and family; and review and share cancer resources vetted by experts. These free personalized webpages will help empower your family and friends to be a stronger support community for you.

Wig support program

Provides free wigs for women (aged 18-plus), who are in financial need and suffering hair loss due to cancer treatment. Synthetic and human-hair wigs are offered, but items may vary depending on availability. The program meets every Tuesday from 11 am–2 pm in the Cancer Resource Center. Appointments must be scheduled.

The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Cancer Communications Department [121 DeKalb Ave. near Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 250–8926].

Monthly support groups

• BrooklynSHARE meets at Kings Bay YM-YWHA [3495 Nostrand Ave. between Avenues V and U in Sheepshead Bay, (844) 275–7427] Mondays, 7:30–9 pm.

• BrooklynSHARE meets at Restoration Plaza [1368 Fulton St. between New York and Brooklyn avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant, (844) 275–7427] in the first-floor multipurpose room, Tuesdays, 3:30–5 pm.