By Christopher Millette
For HDMedia
For many cancer patients, “remission” doesn’t always mean “gone forever.”
“There’s not a ‘happy ever after’ for a lot of cases,” said Janet Schoen, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and bone cancer in 2014. “It will never be over.”
Schoen, 69, of Charleston, was one of about a dozen women who shared their cancer stories recently after a weekly meeting of the Radiance Resilience Collective at the YMCA of the Kanawha Valley in Charleston.
“That’s why this group is so important,” said Mendy Egnor, 54, of Charleston, another RRC regular who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2018.
The RRC was started in March 2025 by Jessica Carter Summers, 45, who is currently in remission for breast cancer after being diagnosed in April 2024.
The RRC is a supportive movement and social program for women living with and beyond cancer.
Egnor said everyone in the group knows how mentally exhausting the process is.
”We’ve all been through different cancers. We’re all at different stages, but we can come in here, and they just get it. You know, your family doesn’t get it. You know, your friends. These women just get it, and it’s a safe space,” Egnor said.
But bad news is only a part of the support the RRC women give each other.
“We celebrate the good times as well,” said Diane Holley-Brown, 63, of Sissonville. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2003 and breast cancer in 2020.
“If we get a good report … we’ll be like, OK, we had a great test result this time. Of course, we always say, ‘this time’ because … for a lot of us, we’ve had cancer more than once. But maybe this is our last time getting cancer. We all hope that,” she said.
Prioritizing movement and exercise
The RRC classes begin with light exercise, with no judgment or expectations.
On a recent Wednesday, YMCA group fitness instructor Cathy Capps-Amburgey led the women through seated and standing exercises. Some women used light weights while others went through the motions with just their arms and legs.
It’s not about lifting big weights and surpassing weekly goals.
“I didn’t feel like I wanted to exercise when I started the group,” Carter Summers said. “I could barely talk, but I also thought if I could just get myself in that room, I can just sit here and move my feet or watch, and you will feel better. And so everything’s tailored so that even if you’re tired and you don’t want to do anything, don’t. Come in and sit. And then once you see us move a little bit, then we’ll all be doing something.”
Carter Summers said movement and exercise is critical to recovery from cancer.
“Well, it’s important because now all the studies are starting to show, and they’re encouraging doctors to basically prescribe cancer patients exercise,” Carter Summers said. “Because when your body is going through treatment — whether that treatment is chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, surgery — your body will recover and receive all of those treatments better if you are moving.”
The women-only classes are held in a private room on the second floor of the YMCA. All of the equipment is sterilized before it’s used each week for the safety of patients with compromised immune systems.
How the RRC came to be
Carter Summers, a Charleston attorney, went through her cancer treatment but said she knew she needed a different kind of support that her family and friends would never understand.
“I went to WVU Thomas and then CAMC,” Carter Summers said, referring to her treatments. “And I saw tons of women, tons of women that had cancer, but I didn’t know anybody. But it was like the stuff I was going through kind of sucked. Like when I had mouth sores and couldn’t talk. They were just like, ‘Yeah, have you and have you tried…'” Carter Summers added, referring to making recommendations.
The RRC is a peer-led group, and you don’t have to be a YMCA member to attend classes.
“None of us are doctors and none of us are therapists,” Carter Summers said. “But this is a room where you can come, whether you just got diagnosed or whether you were diagnosed years ago and you’re still living with it. This is where you come to kind of just get it off your chest, or to ask the real questions, because we know about lots of things in the community and lots of tricks and trades.”
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