Support Systers, LLC -- News

Hunterdon Democrat
October 13, 2005

For Her, Beating Cancer Required Help From Many
by Curtis Leeds

Isabelle Peloquin of Holland Township has a long list of people to thank for helping her beat cancer.

The list includes her daughter, Jeanette Dean, with whom she lives. There's Myron Bednar, an oncologist at Hunterdon Medical Center's cancer center, and the rest of the staff at the cancer center, too. There's Carolyn Kohmuench at the county's Office on Aging.

But the 81-year-old reserves her greatest praise for Kathy Kane, a nurse she met through a group called Support Systers. "That's what sustained me," said Ms. Peloquin of Ms. Kane's help.

The two met after the cancer center referred Ms. Peloquin to Support Systers, which had received a $3000 grant to help people just like her.

Support Systers, based in Clinton Township, provides patient and family advocacy for medical patients. Its primary functions are transporting and accompanying patients to medical appointments, whether they are for routine physician visits or, as in Ms. Peloquin's case, for treatment of serious disease. Ms. Kane is not only a nurse for Support Systers, but also a vice-president in charge of nursing operations and patient care for the company.

The grant came from Johnson & Johnson's "Campaign for Nursing's Future" program. The company says the country is in the midst of a "profound shortage of nurses" and expects a shortfall of about a half- million registered nurses over the next decade. It developed the program to help find ways to solve the shortage.

Bradley Robinson, who is director of market development for Support Systers, said the health care system needs to create growth opportunities to retain experienced nurses. And as we live longer, primary caregivers are getting older as treatment options for diseases such as Ms. Peloquin's melanoma become more complex. The benefit of a personal advocated such as Ms. Kane becomes increasingly valuable, he said.

Support Systers used the grant to provide service for those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it, Mr. Robinson said.

Ms. Dean agrees, "I didn't want my mom in a nursing home," she said. And that might have been her only choice without Ms. Kane. She drove her mom to the cancer center for the six months of two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off series of immune therapy that followed the surgery to remove a tumor and the lymph nodes the cancer had entered.

Ms. Dean said having someone such as Ms. Kane who not only provided transportation but also monitored and gave reports about her mom's progress, "takes the pressure off of one person." For Ms. Peloquin, the journey that began in January couldn't have ended better. The cancer is gone. "I'm very fortunate," she said. Between Support Systers, Hunterdon Medical Center and being able to live with her daughter, "I've been lucky. They're all the finest people."

Copyright 2005 Hunterdon Democrat Newspapers

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