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49 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, May 10, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend April 15, 2004 ‘Women on the Fly’ plans retreat for breast-cancer survivors By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune When Martha Koch walked out of a Washington, D.C., hospital 25 years ago as a breast cancer survivor, the stigma surrounding mastectomies didn’t push her psyche into the closet. She knew her neighbor at the time had a similar surgery 25 years earlier and was fine. Plus, her background as a occupational therapist helped expose her to medical issues. Still, the silence that surrounded her seemed deafening. "You didn’t know people who had breast cancer because they didn’t talk about it," says Koch, now 74. "After the surgery, you feel kind of isolated. You feel like you’re the only person to have this go wrong." A generation later, Koch is retired and living in Medford’s Rogue Valley Manor and she believes her new past-time could be an important elixir for other cancer survivors still suffering in silence. Advertisement Fly-fishing. Koch is part of group of Rogue Valley women fly-casters trying to share the physical and psychological benefits that fly-fishing can bring to breast-cancer survivors. The group, who call themselves "Women on the Fly," are working to introduce a national program called Casting for Recovery to Oregon this fall with a three-day fishing retreat aimed at proving to survivors that there’s plenty of life after a mastectomy. The group plans a Sept. 17-19 retreat for up to 14 women at the Big K Guest Ranch in Elkton, where participants will learn fly-fishing while casting to the smallmouth bass-rich waters of the Umpqua River. The retreat is free and open to any Oregonian in any stage of breast-cancer treatment recovery. Participants register through the Vermont-based Casting for Recovery, which selects the participants randomly. Koch says she’s excited to help introduce more survivors to the soft smell of a summer stream, the rhythmic beat of a cast and the indisputable hum of life-long learning that comes to those stalking fish with flies. "I hope the people who go to this really don’t know anything about fly-fishing," says Koch, who took up the sport at age 70. "They’ll be trying something they never dreamed of doing before their surgery, let alone after. They can see that they can do this, and that it’s wonderful." And it’s also the central message Benita Walton has sought for breast-cancer survivors since she helped form Casting for Recovery in 1996. Walton, a former reconstructive surgeon in New Hampshire who now practices psychiatry, struggled with a belief that surgeons did well to rebuild the bodies damaged by cancer but failed to address the mind-blowing experiences cancer-patients feel. At that time, Walton met Gwen Perkins from the Orvis Co., who also dreamed of using fly-fishing as a tool for reaching out to breast-cancer survivors. "It was like the old cartoon of two people walking down the road not knowing where to go and running right into each other," says Walton from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. The women, both devoted fly-fishers, formed the nonprofit group to focus on creating specialized fly-fishing retreats. Orvis provides all the top-drawer equipment participants need, while Walton has created a regimen for physical therapists and counselors to help work through the mind-body dilemmas these survivors encounter. "It’s a different type of concept," Walton says. "There are a lot of people in Oregon, I’m sure, who can grasp what something like fly-fishing can do more than a lot of people on the East Coast." But just where the true impacts lie is of some dispute. Many, like Walton, believe the casting motions mimic many of the soft-tissue exercises some surgeon prescribe after breast removal and reconstruction. Others, Walton concedes, believe survivors of this enormously invasive surgery should not be using their damaged arm and chest muscles to whip little sticks in the air. "The school is split on it," she says. "Some docs say not to use the arm in the way we do." But something magical seems to happen to retreat participants when they get to share their stories, fears and hopes with others who share their pain. And doing so while standing in a cobblestone stream casting to a brook trout provides the frame for this magnificent painting. "It doesn’t matter how many of these trips you go on," Walton says. "Each one, you get struck by another story and see another life touched by this whole fly-fishing experience. It’s amazing." It’s also a notion that captivates Marty Phillips. She’s a Medford member of Women on the Fly who first contacted Casting for Recovery last year in hopes of bringing the program to Oregon. She helped arrange the Big K Guest Ranch support, recruiting people to help and then knocking on doors for donations. "Once we got started, it’s been like watching a flower unfold ever since," Phillips says. The group has raised about $6,500, largely from raffle sales and angling club donations, says Cathy Tronquet, a Medford fly-casting instructor and one of the organizers. "It’s been a lot more difficult than I expected," Tronquet says. But life has been quite a bit better than expected for Koch since she discovered fly-fishing, and she can’t wait to share her new avocation with other survivors. In the past four years, she’s learned to tie flies and now even builds fly rods. Her casting is smooth and delicate, and her presence on the upper Rogue River has some calling her "The Queen of Dodge Bridge." "Any doctor will tell you exercise of any kind is good," Koch says. "And you know? There’s something about just being on the river, too." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times