An elementary-aged girl wears a pink bandana. It’s a piece of color hiding obvious signs of chemotherapy. She runs across a metal bridge surrounded by trees on either side. She moves from the wide entrance of the park to a more hidden area, a little bit like entering Narnia.
A bridge over the Reedy River is found in Cancer Survivors Park.
The girl is on her way to a Make-A-Wish Foundation trip to Disney World. On the trek from Maryland to Florida, she stops in Greenville, S.C., to see the Fear Not statue at Cancer Survivors Park Alliance. The statue is a lion modeled after Aslan in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. For the girl, it is a fulfillment of Cancer Survivors Park’s mission to change the way of living with cancer.
Cancer Survivors Park Alliance is a nonprofit that focuses on lifestyle intervention for cancer patients and survivors. The organization practices in a 6.8-acre public park in downtown Greenville, providing programs and pleasant scenery for survivors. Executive Director Kay Roper said millions of people are diagnosed every year.
“But a lot more are living with it. And so we want to address the things that a patient and their family can control.”
According to the American Cancer Society, 20 million people received a cancer diagnosis in 2022. That number is expected to rise to 35 million over the next 25 years. Greenville County has consistently ranked in the top half of number of new diagnoses per year in the state of South Carolina, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The Cancer Survivors Park Alliance hosts exercise classes, lifestyle education and support groups for this growing population. All of the programs are in different stations of the park. The park contains the natural appeal of a vast green landscape and a long running creek. It also has encouraging structures that lead its visitors through the walkways. Plaques expressing the power of prayer, faith and hope align the healing garden; the Fear Not statue sits in the children’s area.
“This is a part of hope and healing,” Roper said. “There are studies that show if you’re in a hospital room that you will heal faster and better in a room with a window.”
This survivorship support works through several of the park’s programs. They offer flyfishing lessons, which Roper said offers therapeutic benefits to those suffering with cancer. Cancer treatment can cause lymphedema (or swelling) and the motion of casting a rod helps manage it naturally. Both patients and their loved ones participate.
Cancer Survivors Park Alliance is not just for the survivors who have won their fight with cancer. Their definition of survivor expands to loved ones. Roper’s sister passed away from cancer at age 38, leaving behind a husband and two young children. This makes Roper a survivor of her sister.
“It was horrible,” Roper said. But she got through the journey for a while and we celebrate that she lived. My joy is to spread the story of my sister.”
Chris Thomas is a different kind of survivor. He also seeks refuge in the park. As a local medical oncologist at Prisma Health, he sees 15 to 22 patients a day, several with late stage cancer.
“I kind of liken it to watching a baseball game. It’s a lot easier to be a player than to be in the stands. And if you have a patient, they’re out on the field and you have to watch it and you feel a little helpless,” Thomas said.
A memorial found in the park.
Thomas lost his mother to cancer and believes that is the reason he became an oncologist. Walking through the park on his off days helps him clear his own mind. He believes the benefits it promotes relate to some of the most important aspects of hope for those fighting cancer.
“I think your perspective and your attitude is the most important thing. People who have strong family and friends support systems tend to do better in their journey with cancer,” Thomas said.
For Thomas, it’s the opportunity to walk through the grounds and reflect on aspects of his life outside of a clinical oncology setting that help bring peace. The Celebration Pavillion, a circular pathway overlooking the park, offers inspirational sayings. The sayings have quotes ranging from Winnie the Pooh to the Bible. The path calls people to hope by embracing a childlike wonder. It also quotes Matthew 11:28–30, pointing weary people battling cancer and other survivors to come to Jesus.
“I actually spend more time thinking about my family and what my personal goals are. I would love to not to have to have my job. I wish the world was an easier place,” Thomas said.
And so he walks through Cancer Survivors Park, connecting with his own hope and healing.
—Jessica Clark is a storyteller in Abilene, TX. She works primarily in instructional design and video production and has degrees from Abilene Christian University and Knox Theological Seminary.