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»  BreastCancerStories.com Breast cancer patients are provided with a unique Web address to write and upload diary entries and photos whenever convenient for them. Friends and family members can visit their site to follow their story and better understand what their loved one is going through. New breast cancer patients can search through an index of stories to find someone similar to themselves in age, type of cancer, and treatments, and follow their story to help themselves to not feel so alone.

Wendy McCoole was 42 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. While battling the disease and going through treatment, she wanted to keep family members and friends updated on what she was going through. But she found it challenging to keep them all current on her situation and she also found it difficult to repeat herself when they questioned or did not understand something. It was also not easy for her loved ones to ask her the questions they needed answered.

To keep these loved ones updated, McCoole began writing an online diary, which she nicknamed “Bald Wendy.”

On this site, McCoole said she was honest about what she was going through and shared stories and photos of getting her head shaved, the definitions of her medications, and even photos of her nieces and nephews painting her head like an Easter egg.

“I tried to make it as light and fun as possible, even though it was a really hard time,” she said.

McCoole also started a guestbook on “Bald Wendy,” which started out being signed by friends and family members but quickly became people she did not know.

“That was shocking,” McCoole says. “I hadn’t even thought about that. I really was just trying to communicate with loved ones.”

It occurred to McCoole how helpful and inspirational her site was to breast cancer patients and family members everywhere.

“People need to find a mechanism to hear what other people are going through so they don’t feel alone,” she said.

So stemming from her “Bald Wendy” idea, McCoole launched the Web site “BreastCancerStories.com,” a site she developed to help those going through breast cancer communicate with loved ones and with one another over the Internet.

McCoole says this site is perfect for those who may not be “support group type people.” But she says even if they are willing to visit support groups, “there are specific times when those are available. They are not available at 3 in the morning when you have just been woken up from chemo or just want to write.”

Jackie Bryan, a health communication consultant and a breast cancer survivor who uses “BreastCancerStories.com,” says with the Web site, patients can control the information and emotions that are coming out.

“You can write what you’re feelings are at 2 in the morning. And it’s therapeutic to have people write back to you. It’s at your leisure,” she said.

McCoole and Bryan also say there is a gap between the time you are diagnosed and when you receive treatment, and during this time, many women go to the Internet for help in answering their questions.

But Bryan says, “How do you know the safe places?”

McCoole says “BreastCancerStories.com” will be able to tell these women what is new, what they should expect, and what they will go through coming from women who have experienced it. She says it will help them to see “I’m not crazy. I’m not here by myself.”

Bryan says it is important for women to go on and read about someone going through the same things and also to read success stories. Bryan told the story of a woman from North Carolina who contacted her through the site who was looking for someone like herself and who had experienced what she was going through now. She found Bryan who was the same age, had small children, and was also a tri-athlete. Bryan said through the site this woman “could connect with somebody who was like her. Nothing else would have been able to connect us like that.”

The site is also beneficial for family members coping with their loved one’s journey with breast cancer, McCoole says, especially since so many families now are spread out so far away from one another.

Bryan says she feels the site is a tool hospitals should have for breast cancer patients and she is working on a toolbox for newly diagnosed patients that will include McCoole’s program.

“You can never make the experience a great one, but this will certainly lessen the blow,” she says.

Katie Paine, a CEO, breast cancer survivor and user of “BreastCancerStories.com,” says she hopes more presence and awareness comes to the site.

“So every time someone gets a bad mammogram, they are told to check out “BreastCancerStories.com,” she says.

Sue Gosselin, MSN, RN, OCN, director of the Hematology and Oncology Center at Portsmouth Regional Hospital and a member of board of directors of “BreastCancerStories.com,” says patients have needed something like this to be available to them for a long time. She says the hospital hands out folders to newly diagnosed patients that will include information about “BreastCancerStories.com.”

Gosselin also says the site offers a good outlet for women to express their concerns and what is going on with them on their own time. “It’s really great,” she says.

She says it is also helpful for caregivers to see what is going on with their friend or family member and to help them stay grounded through the experience.

“It helps both ends of the spectrum,” Gosselin says.

The site helped McCoole’s daughter, Brittany Flanagan, know what her mother was going through and how she was doing while Flanagan was going through her first years of college. Flanagan says it was very comforting to know how her mother was doing when she wasn’t nearby.

Flanagan is proud of her mother’s strength and ability to start up something that she and McCoole say will be beneficial to women all over.

Bryan says McCoole is inspirational. “I was amazed at how diligent she was. She was eager to learn and just went ahead and did it.”

“Good things come out of really crappy experiences. Wendy could have become a totally negative person, or she could take it and turn it into something good,” Bryan said.

McCoole says, “It’s not my personality to roll over and do nothing. I’m putting my sweat, tears, and love into this so other people can have access and stay connected during such a terrifying thing,” McCoole said.

“BreastCancerStories” was recently selected as a beneficiary for Concert for a Cure, which was co-founded by Paine and will take place on June 25 at The Redhook Ale Brewery. The eight-hour concert will raise money for breast cancer and will feature Latin, blues, swing, and folk music and a gospel choir from more than two dozen local and nationally renowned musicians. There will also be a silent auction and raffles.

“BreastCancerStories.com” is a nonprofit tax-exempt organization and all funding is provided by charitable contribution, health-care sponsorships, grants, individual donations, and beneficiary funds through special events. To share a story or see how you can help, visit “www.BreastCancerStories.com.”