Philippines' First Thyroid Cancer Support Group To Meet in Cebu City

The Philippines’ first thyroid cancer support group will meet on the last Thursday of every month starting on March 30, 2006, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Cebu Doctor’s Hospital, Nuclear Medicine Services Office, 2nd floor, Osmena Boulevard, Cebu City 6000, Philippines.

Meetings are free and open to people at all phases of testing, treatment, and follow-up for thyroid cancer, as well as their family members and friends.

The ThyCa Philippines Support Group is affiliated with the nonprofit organization ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association, Inc. The Philippines group is the first such group outside the Unites States. The support group has its own page on the ThyCa web site, with meeting information.

Vittoria de Veyra and Yvonne Pahaganas, co-facilitators of the ThyCa Philippines Support Group, invite thyroid cancer patients, families, and friends to attend meetings. To find out more about the new group, contact Vittoria de Veyra by e-mail at philippines@thyca.org or Yvonne Pahaganas by telephone at +6332-2555555 loc 287.

“I am pleased to announce our first international group—ThyCa Philippines,” said ThyCa's Support Groups Coordinator Sara Gorrell Brenner. "Our support groups are helpful resources for families coping with the challenges of thyroid cancer."

“Dr. Blesilda Pono, a nuclear medicine doctor of the Cebu Doctors' Hospital in Cebu City, Philippines attended ThyCa's 8th International Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Conference in Denver last October,” said Ms. Veyra. “On her return to the Philippines, she convened some of her patients, me included, and encouraged us to form a support group. ThyCa was, and continues to be, an inspiration for our support group.”

ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association, Inc., is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of thyroid cancer survivors, families, and health care professionals, advised by internationally recognized thyroid cancer specialists.

For more information about ThyCa’s free year-round support services, education, and publications, e-mail tothyca@thyca.org, call toll-free 1-877-588-7904, write to PO Box 1545, New York, NY 10159-1545 USA, or visit the ThyCa web site.