Mentors/Mentees

At various points in my life, I’ve benefitted from the involvement of a mentor, someone who is a bit farther along in life and perhaps a specific experience. I still keep in touch with many of the mentors I was serendipitously connected with at various points. Bottom line, my life was enriched in significant ways.

Some of you may know that I serve as the Director of Mentorship for Project Life. I’ve been honored to be a part of the virtual wellness house focused on the LIVING part of living with MBC and would urge any of you reading this post to consider becoming a part of this vibrant community. Unlike many of the groups focused on the MBC Community, we encourage allies and caregivers to be a part and take advantage of our offerings.

Starting in October, we will be training our second class/cohort of mentors, people who are willing to take their experiences with MBC or caring for someone with MBC and be a resource for others. Most of the people who ask us for a mentee are newly diagnosed with MBC. While that time period is a little fuzzy for me (the combination of trauma and chemo will do that to you!), I do remember how lost I felt.

I know I speak for the leadership team at Project Life when I say that we don’t want anyone to go through that awful transition alone.

If you are living with MBC or are caring for someone with MBC and you feel that you are in a place where you could offer support to someone else similarly situated, feel free to sign up to join the class here. The deadline to apply is September 24th so that we can review each application and welcome our second class.

Before I designed the training and the mentorship program, I joined every mentoring organization that I could catering to cancer patients. There are a variety of programs out there and each has it’s own strengths and weaknesses.

Here’s what sets the mentorship program at Project Life apart — how much we do to support our mentors.

Mentoring others with the same terminal diagnosis as we carry can be a heavy lift and from personal experience, I know how often that can become too much. The mentorship leadership team supports the mentors in the way that I want to be supported and we are always adding and adjusting how we support each of them to ensure that their cups are full. As I realize again and again personally, we cannot pour from an empty cup.

If you are living with MBC or support someone who is living with MBC, please consider joining us next month as part of the training class.