UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 13

outreach

giving back
continued from page 21

to help patients overcome many of these issues and
better navigate the cancer journey.

A perfect example of this is Angela Williams, who

first became a CHARP in 2001 after losing her sister

to ovarian cancer. “For several months, I facilitated my
grief and fears in unhealthy ways,” she recalls. “But

after volunteering with the Deep South Network, my
grief changed to graduation as a community health
advisor.”

In addition to serving as a CHARP, Ms. Williams

conducted
literally
thousands of
cancer awareness
activities that
have reached
hundreds of
thousands of
people.

areas. For example, the Body & Soul initiative, the

link patients to community resources, help patients
overcome barriers to treatment, support patients

on clinical trials, and provide social and emotional
support from diagnosis to survivorship.”

The Future of the Deep South Network
So where do the CHAs – and the Deep South

Network – go from here? There are challenges ahead.
Federal funding for cancer research has decreased

nationwide, and programs such as the DSN are being
affected. While additional funding sources are being

findings and reflect on what has been done while
examining what still needs to be accomplished.

“This is a time for us to celebrate our successes and

accomplishments,” Ms. Hardy says. “It also allows us

to do a full analysis of the massive amounts of data we
have collected over the years.”

The DSN has conducted literally thousands of

cancer awareness activities that have reached hundreds
of thousands of people. While the network mostly

focused on breast and cervical cancer screenings in

its early days, it expanded over the years to include
C O M P R E H E N S I V E

C A N C E R

C E N T E R

By JOSH TILL

Loss research intervention are all programs designed
to address the lack of physical activity and poor

eating habits among minorities and other underserved
populations.

Ms. Hardy recognizes, however, that there is

rates among the Medicare population, we still have 40

navigator for all cancer types,” she says. “As such, I

Advisory Board Names New Members,
Officers

WALK Campaign and the Journey to Better Weight

as a CHA play a key role in my success as a patient

an additional year of funding to disseminate their

U A B

choices among African-Americans in its targeted

still plenty of work to be done. “While we have been

secured, the NCI has granted the Cancer Center

22

began heavily targeting physical activity and lifestyle

also works as a patient navigator for the UAB Division
of Preventive Medicine. “My training and expertise

The DSN has

colorectal cancer. In the last eight years, DSN also

successful in reversing disparities in mammography

percent of the populations who are unscreened. These
are educated people with insurance and the means

necessary to get screened, but don’t for a number of

reasons. We have to be innovative and push ourselves
outside our comfort zones to reach these people.”
For the next year, the CHARPs are being

mobilized to go back into their communities and

update them on what the DSN has accomplished and
gain feedback on potential activities and initiatives

going forward. Ms. Hardy hopes to expand the CHA
model to include HIV and hepatitis-C awareness

and education along with other chronic diseases that
have a cancer connection, in addition to conducting
more community-based participatory research and
collaborating with other Cancer Center scientists.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is the

paradigm shift in people’s willingness to talk about
cancer,” she says. “When we first started, we had
to really beat the bushes to seek out people and

programs,