Gilda’s Gang

When Gail Addlestone, M.D., (MD’97) was 18, she lost her mother to ovarian cancer. Years later, as a newly established Nashville pediatrician, Addlestone became a long-term volunteer at Gilda’s Club Nashville, a place where patients and those near to them find free support for living with cancer.

In her early 30s and pregnant, Addlestone was diagnosed with breast cancer at a time when she had continued to lead a Gilda’s Club bereavement group for children and adolescents. Under the care of neonatologists, her cherished daughter, Eleanor, was delivered early and safely.

When illness and side effects of treatment eventually left her unable to maintain her pediatric practice, Addlestone instead joined the staff at Gilda’s Club. There she conceived and launched Gilda’s Gang, an annual program marrying volunteer fundraising with a 16-week course of fitness training, including regular sessions with personal trainers, weekly group workouts and complimentary gym access, culminating in group participation in the Country Music Half Marathon. In 2007, its second year, Gilda’s Gang drew 60 volunteers who together raised $150,000. Of that total, Addlestone herself raised about $50,000.

Addlestone died from cancer in July 2007, three months after completing the Country Music Half Marathon with other Gilda’s Gang participants.

In a non-residential, homelike setting near Music Row at 1707 Division St., the organization Addlestone helped nurture continues to serve men, women, teenagers and children with all types of cancer, as well as their family members and friends, offering a varied program of support groups, workshops, recreational opportunities, information and referrals.

With Vanderbilt providing more uncompensated care than all other Nashville hospitals combined, the Medical Center is generally too busy raising money for its own programs to consider giving funds to other organizations. Gilda’s Club remains an important exception. The program counts Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a major corporate benefactor.

Faculty and staff at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have found a close partner in Gilda’s Club. Neurosurgical oncologist Reid Thompson, M.D., vice chair and associate professor of Neurological Surgery, began referring more patients and families to Gilda’s Club after visiting the facility some years back.

“I suddenly came to realize it’s a very important resource, one that’s much broader than I had realized,” Thompson said. With a new brain cancer diagnosis, “not just the patients themselves, but family members, as well, may find themselves struggling quite suddenly with something they never thought they would have to deal with. Beyond coping with the medical complexities, people may be facing other difficulties — spiritual, emotional, interpersonal, vocational and so on. Gilda’s goes a long way toward addressing those needs. It’s an unbelievably positive place,” he said.

“They’ve been a great partner to work with,” said Vanderbilt pediatric hematologist Jim Whitlock, M.D., Craig-Weaver Professor of Pediatrics. Whitlock said emotional support figures greatly into treatment of childhood cancer. “It’s huge. It’s hard enough to be a kid these days, but add to that losing your hair, bearing scars from surgery, walking around with a central line hanging out of your chest: to have a place where people understand what that’s about and freely provide informed support is so essential.”

The Gilda’s Club calendar is replete with sessions devoted to yoga, pilates, tai chi, art activities, writing workshops and cooking classes. Support groups for patients and for family and friends each meet weekly.

More specialized support groups meet monthly, including groups for teenagers, young adults and diagnosis-specific groups. Support groups are facilitated by on-staff social workers.

“For our support groups, our philosophy is that the wisdom is in the room. The experts are the folks who are living it,” said Felice Apolinsky, L.C.S.W., a cancer survivor and staff member at Gilda’s Club.

Jule West, M.D. (MD’97), assistant professor of Medicine, met Gail Addlestone during their first year of medical school at Vanderbilt. The two became close friends.

“Gail was really a magnanimous soul. She had this amazing gift — she was the type of person who lit up the entire room, and she was fully engaged whenever she was with you. And she was very selfless, thoughtful and brave,” West said.

“From the time of her diagnosis onward, it was clear that she was not going to be a person with breast cancer. She was going to be a person — period. There’s nothing more amazing than watching someone who’s dying from an illness live, and live fully.