Relay’s Honorary Chair—

After Two Bouts With Cancer, Collins Wants

To Co-Pilot For Recently Diagnosed

By John Voket

In keeping with her staunchly optimistic outlook, Jill Collins, the 2010 Newtown Relay For Life’s Honorary Chair, told The Bee that if it was not for her two experiences with cancer, “I wouldn’t be meeting all these fabulous people!”

“I get to make a difference because I got cancer,” she added.

Ms Collins was named honorary chair at the January gathering of committee members and volunteers for the annual communitywide awareness and fundraising event, which is scheduled for June 5–6 at Fairfield Hills. While event chair Addie Sandler is responsible for managing all the organizational and behind the scenes business associated with the activity — which is the American Cancer Society’s largest single fundraising initiative — it is the honorary chair who represents the community’s face of cancer survivorship.

“Some people who are living with, or who have experienced, cancer don’t want to take on that persona of a survivor,” Ms Collins said. “But any bad experience that you live through makes you stronger. After my experiences, I became a little more focused and determined to look for the best in life. And I want to pursue and share that energy with others when they are facing a diagnosis of cancer.”

As a 22-year-old and newcomer to Newtown, Ms Collins discovered a lump on the left side of her neck. Her fears came into focus after tests at Memorial Sloan Kettering revealed she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer originating from the body’s white blood cells.

While she blames growing up near a polluted river in a “cancer cluster” neighborhood in Michigan, she was in the middle of five otherwise healthy sisters and a surviving mother, none of whom were affected by cancer. Ms Collins also had her tonsils and adenoids out at age 2 and again at 20, which she believes also may have compromised her immunity.

She feels blessed to be among the patients of Presidential Physician and renowned Hodgkin’s treatment pioneer Dr Burton Lee, whose customized regiment of chemotherapy and radiation helped keep Ms Collins cancer-free for more than 25 years. During that time she not only accompanied a friend who had been recently diagnosed to meet with Dr. Lee and receive treatment, but she started reaching out to help others affected by cancer — providing rides to treatments and her own special brand of knowing personal support.

“I’ve been an advocate for survivors since I was first diagnosed in 1982,” she said.

An Unfortunate Reoccurrence

Coincidentally and unfortunately, the intense combination of chemicals and radiation treatments from her earlier bout with Hodgkin’s is the likely culprit blamed for her second diagnosis.

“In March of 2008, a mammogram confirmed by an MRI indicated I had a 1.6 cm spot in my breast,” she recalled, which turned out to be invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC).

“My odds of recurrence were high, and I was looking at eight rounds of chemo with a double potency dosage than what I had before,” she said. “So I opted for a double mastectomy so I could avoid another potentially life-threatening round of chemo.”

Since her latest diagnosis, Ms Collins has increased her commitment to health even more than before.

“I’m trying to exercise more, eat right, get my rest, and most importantly, surrounding myself with positive people,” she said, adding that this is the main attitude she tries to impart on anyone she meets who is or has battled the disease.

“Find a passion and help others,” she advises. “Ultimately, I’d like to be a cancer co-pilot, or a specially trained individual that stands close and helps individuals through their recovery process.”

While Ms Collins has not achieved that goal yet, she has shared some “amazing” experiences, including being asked to serve on a federal advisory panel that was charged with determining how $250 million in government cancer research funding would be allocated.

“Doing that made me feel very much at the grass roots of new medical developments,” she said. Ms Collins is also a regular at a regional breast cancer survivors group that meets at Ann’s Place in Danbury.

And she is a trained Bridges counselor, who is assigned to provide one-on-one support for those being treated for Hodgkin’s and breast cancer.

She resides in Newtown with her husband, George. Her 20-year-old son, George, Jr, is a student at WestConn and her 18-year-old daughter, Nicole, is training to be a social worker at Gordon College near Boston. The family also adores their two rescue dogs.

Buoying Those Around Her

In a letter nominating her for the honorary chair position for this year’s Relay For Life, longtime friend Doreen Kelleher was first impressed meeting Ms Collins, who “would travel with lunch supplies in her car so she and her children could enjoy the moment wherever they were.”

“She is very thoughtful and introspective,” Ms Kelleher wrote. “She truly lives her life. If she has a glitch she makes every effort to address it and do whatever is necessary to work things out, no matter how much effort it can take. Jill understands that bad things happen but with perseverance one can overcome almost anything and buoy up those around her.”

Saying that Ms Collins “held her hand” through her own cancer treatment, Ms Kelleher recalled that “while undergoing her last bout with cancer Jill remained involved with the VNA, worked, took on a college search with her daughter, weathered job uncertainty and held the hands of others going through cancer as well. Jill is an inspiration in the way she approaches life and all the good and bad.  She is the first to celebrate your good news and always available to help you through your bad news.  She does not avoid the unpleasant; she pushes through or figures out how to make it better.”

Ms Collins and Ms Sandler invite fellow Newtowners to come out to the next Relay Captain/Information Meeting, March 4 at the Newtown Middle School at 7 pm.

“We will be having a Cake Walk at the meeting, which will be a fundraiser for the general Committed to Relay Team,” Ms Sandler said. She explained that the cake walk involves players standing on floor numbers. When the music is played the participants walk around the circle on the floor numbers.  When the music stops, so do the players. 

The carnival booth volunteer then draws out a number from the bowl, and the player whose number is drawn wins a packaged goodie.  All other players receive a consolation prize.

To learn more about the Newtown Relay For Life, visit www.relayforlife.org/newtownct.