June 2011

Jan Moffatt, Cancer Survivor, Metastatic Melanoma
Summer Morning

After discovering a lump under her arm one day in January 1994, Jan Moffatt, artist of the painting Summer Morning on the June page of the 2011 Expressions of Hope calendar, was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma and underwent vaccine treatment for seven months.

“When I left, they told me that two out of three patients had a recurrence in the first three years after treatment,” Jan said. “That was 16 years ago. I thought I might not see my 50^th birthday and in a few months I will celebrate my 60^th!”

Since her diagnosis, Jan has lost several people close to her to cancer, but she continues to always try to give others hope with her unexpected survival. “You can beat the odds!” she said. “Every day my painting becomes more and more a vehicle to give people a quiet, peaceful, safe place to go.”

A landscape painter, Jan said she “found that the only time I felt ‘safe' was when I was painting. One day I realized, ‘When I'm painting, I don't have cancer.' It was one of the most empowering moments of my life.”

More information about the Expressions of Hope calendar is available at www.cancer.net/expressionsofhope.