Oncology Navigators: A Lifeline for Cancer Patients Battling More Than Just Disease

It doesn't take long for Mary Garcia to get emotional when she talks about her cancer journey.

At 59-years-old, she's battling three different cancers: lung cancer, thyroid cancer, and melanoma in her lymph nodes.

The diagnosis sounds crushing. However, it's not the cancer that scares her, it's the financial burden of the disease, while trying to hold it together for her family at home. 

“It’s hard to open your mouth and say, ‘hey, I need help,'” said Garcia. “This isn’t working for me. Somebody needs to hear me holler.”

That's where OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital's Oncology Navigators come in. 

Garcia works with two navigators: Tammy McChristy-Weaver, an oncology nurse navigator who helps with any clinical questions Garcia may have, and Gillian Garverick, a social work navigator, who helps Garcia with social and emotional needs.

“If a patient were to come and say, ‘I can’t afford rent, I can’t get groceries, I can’t get to my appointments,’ I’d be the go to help connect them to local resources or other resources that we have here at the hospital to help get them access to food, access to financial assistance, those sorts of things,” said Garverick.

In Garcia's case, she needed help with all of these things: food, car payments, insurance payments, and gas money. 

Mansfield Hospital oncology navigators help her with all of it, whether through catholic charities, or OhioHealth funds. 

Garcia has kept every gas card given to her, to serve as a reminder.

“People need to know that there are people out there willing to help,” said Garcia. “When you have somebody not related to you and not close to you say, ‘what can I do to help you?’ It takes the weight off the shoulders. Completely."

Garcia's journey with cancer is far from over, but she feels better knowing she's not walking this path alone. 

“I’ve always been told: God sends somebody to your door for a reason,” said Garverick. “And I believe that. And he sent me my angels. That’s for sure.”

She encourages other cancer patients to accept help too, starting with these navigators and their willingness to support and lift others.