Our guests for our show on “Coping with Cancer” are from the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing. We speak with Caroline “Tookie” Bright, youth and family services coordinator, and Wendy Tardif, executive director, about their services and also how patients, and family and friends of loved ones, cope with cancer.
Guests
Wendy Tardif
Wendy is the executive director of the Dempsey Center. Wendy received her bachelor of science degree in exercise science from the University of Maine, Orono in 1984. She has worked in the field of community health education for over twenty-five years, co-founding Healthy Androscoggin and playing an instrumental role in the creation of the CMMC Health and Wellness Center. She is a certified tobacco treatment specialist, and has assisted hundreds of former tobacco uses in Central Maine to quit in order to live longer, healthier lives. Wendy is a commissioner for the American Lung Association of Maine and a faculty member of the Center for Tobacco Independence. Wendy has a passion for assisting community members in their quest for a healthier life.
From the show: “I try to get out and meet as many of the families and individuals that are coming through our doors and we just learn so much from them about living life to its fullest extent for whatever time we have left,” says Tardif.
Caroline “Tookie” Bright
Tookie is a graduate of the University of New England’s School of Social Work. She has worked with children and families in various settings since 2001 in outdoor adventure groups to substance abuse and mental health arenas. She spent two years volunteering at the Center for Grieving Children and three more years as the Junior Wavus Director at a camp in midcoast Maine. After spending a year in hospice Tookie found her “home” in the world of medical social work.
In September 2009, Tookie joined the Dempsey Center team as an advanced year masters of social work intern. She focused her study to the clinical needs of children affected by a parent’s serious illness. After obtaining her clinical license, she transitioned to the youth and family services coordinator. In this role, Tookie provides short-term counseling, art and play therapies, and coordinates The Healing Tree Youth and Family Services of the Dempsey Center, which offers a variety of supports to youth and families impacted by cancer.