Summer 2024
By Stephanie Lowitt
Photography by John Deputy
When Dana-Farber Trustee Judie Schlager was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, she wished she knew someone who had gone through the same thing, someone to lean on for advice and comfort. “I was home with my thoughts and fears and no one to help me understand on a personal level what I was facing,” Judie remembers. That’s why, in 2012, Judie and her husband, Larry, established SoulMates, the Dana-Farber program that matches breast cancer patients with volunteer mentors who have had a similar diagnosis.
Since then, Judie and Larry, who are both Dana-Farber Society members (donors who have left a charitable gift to Dana-Farber in their estate plans), have made several generous gifts to grow the program and have inspired their family and friends to do the same. They most recently endowed it with a $500,000 bequest commitment.
“My dream is that everyone diagnosed with any form of cancer can have a SoulMate when they need one.”
Judie Schlager
In addition to mentors, participants can join monthly support calls and learn about nutrition, physical therapy, exercise physiology, sleep, acupuncture, expressive arts, and more.
Judie is proud of the impact SoulMates has made on the lives of so many patients. “I think we are put on this earth to leave something good behind. Thirty years ago, I read that the best thing you can lend a friend is a sympathetic ear. My dream is that everyone diagnosed with any form of cancer can have a SoulMate when they need one.”