When Nancy Dejoie was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, she had many concerns: How will surgery and chemotherapy affect my body? What does my course of treatment entail? Will I feel well enough to take care of my husband and children and to do the things I love? Fortunately, Mrs. Dejoie wasn’t alone. She received life-changing help from a volunteer peer counselor—a cancer survivor herself—through the Bronx Oncology Living Daily (BOLD Living) Program, Montefiore Einstein’s free wellness and support program for cancer patients.
My BOLD Buddy [as peer counselors are known] called me every day to ask how I was doing and answer my questions,” says Mrs. Dejoie, a native of Haiti. “She knew exactly what I was going through and helped me in ways I cannot describe. She motivated me to fight the disease.”
Mrs. Dejoie also took advantage of BOLD Living’s classes in Spanish language, painting and crocheting—just a sampling of the program’s diverse offerings. “They even provided tutors and school supplies for my kids,” she adds.
Taken with the program, she became a peer counselor herself even before completing her own treatment. “I wanted to give back, to be like the people who inspired me,” says Mrs. Dejoie, one of three dozen BOLD Buddies at Montefiore Einstein.