Hope Center's Holiday Gala for Cancer Survivors in its 14th year By Deb McKee The Tribune-Star TERRE HAUTE — Any person who is beating cancer at any time is called a survivor, according to oncologist Dr. Chandra Reddy. Sunday, more than 500 cancer survivors and their families gathered with Reddy, Dr. Ashis Chakrabarti and Dr. Sridhar R. Bolla for the Hope Center’s annual holiday celebration at the Indiana State University Hulman Center. The gala, in its 14th year, is staged for current and former patients of the Hope Center for Blood Diseases and Cancer Care, located in Terre Haute, where Reddy, Chakrabarti and Bolla practice. Reddy says the holiday season can be a time of year when cancer patients can become very depressed, “so we want to uplift their spirts and let them know they are not alone in this world,” he said Sunday as guests took their seats and began greeting friends and fellow survivors. Kathy Burton, 51, has been in remission for 10 years after a diagnosis of breast cancer that had spread to her bones. Sunday was Burton’s first year at the party. When she was first diagnosed, she said, she thought about her kids. “I wanted to live for them,” Burton said. “If it wasn’t for Dr. Reddy and the Lord, I would not be here.” Reddy’s parents, Venkat and Narsamma Krishna Reddy, both died from cancer, and it was in their memory that he began the annual event. “I’m excited every year for this,” Reddy said. “It’s like a family – I have a family at home, a family at the office and the third family is my patients.” Dr. Chakrabarti took the stage shortly after all the guests were seated, thanking them for braving the cold. “I know some of you are not feeling very well,” he said. “But thank you so much for sharing your spirits and your survivorship with us. We enjoy taking care of you,” he added. “We love what we do.” Reddy said while cancer continues to strike one in three Americans and one in four people globally, there are many reasons to be hopeful about advances in cancer prevention and treatment. “We have more targeted therapies to cure and to control cancer, a lot of new research to identify genetic defects, and we are hoping the nation as a whole will start to pay more attention to the prevention aspect,” he said. Marilyn Grady, 74, said she looks forward to the holiday celebration every year. An eight-year survivor of endometrial cancer, Grady said she is blessed to be healthy after enduring multiple radiation treatments. “I was so devastated when I was diagnosed,” Grady said, adding that her mother had died of cancer less than a year prior to her own diagnosis. “I cannot say enough about Dr. Reddy. If you feel bad when you go in, you don’t feel bad when you come back out. He lifts you up,” she said. Grady added that the Hope Center holiday celebration gives her a chance to meet new people who have been through similar trials. “Every year I feel as if I’m leaving with more friends,” she said.