Even before she joined the Young Supporters Board of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Zandy Moyo had plenty of experience in caring for cancer patients.

It started in 1992, when her paternal grandmother was diagnosed with uterine cancer that later spread to her colon; Moyo’s grandmother came to the United States from Zimbabwe for treatment, and Moyo was one of her primary caregivers for the last two years of her life. Later on, when Moyo was in college, her grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer; this time, she traveled to Zimbabwe to spend time with him in his final few months.

“It was pretty tough on everyone, especially with the disease being diagnosed so far away,” Moyo remembers. “Cancer patients in the United States have such a huge advantage in terms of early detection, but it’s definitely a trial if you don’t have early detection or access to proper care.”

After becoming a member of the Young Supporters Board, Moyo, currently the vice president of client services at Birmingham’s Innovation Depot, joined a subgroup focusing on patient services. The Comprehensive Cancer Center had just received a donation from cancer survivor James Estes, who had discovered a program called CanCare in Houston, Texas, and wanted to start a similar effort at UAB. The new program, Courage Companions, began ramping up this past summer.

Moyo went to Houston in April to train as a volunteer with CanCare, a support network that matches cancer patients for one-on-one counseling with people who have either survived cancer or provided care for someone who has. Moyo says those volunteers are able to offer a truly unique and valuable perspective to the people they counsel.

“There were probably 20 other people in my group—five of us who had been caregivers to cancer patients, and the rest who were cancer survivors,” she says. “Cancer survivors are the kind of people who are really living their lives a new way, because they feel like they’ve been given a second chance.”

After learning about everything from listening skills to new advances in cancer treatment during her CanCare training, Moyo was excited to return to Birmingham and begin implementing Courage Companions. “I’ve already met one lady who’s an active cancer caregiver for her sister here in Birmingham,” she says. “We’ve talked about it, and I feel like I’m kind of a mentor to her now—I’ve been able to use the skills that I learned with CanCare to give her an outlet, because she spends so much of her time taking care of her sister.”

Moyo adds that CanCare has offered to counsel some Birmingham patients until the Courage Companions can get up to speed with a full staff of volunteers.

The ultimate goal, she says, is to provide Birmingham’s cancer patients with a level of care, empathy, and advice that they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. “A lot of times, cancer patients will say, ‘You don’t know what I’m going through because you’ve never had cancer,’” she explains. “So it’s wonderful to have someone who’s had your same kind of cancer, and who may have gone through the same treatment you’ve gone through, to be there and answer your questions. They have experienced the trauma themselves of having cancer and all that comes with it, and the first thing they want to do is find somebody to help.”

To get involved with Courage Companions as a patient, survivor, or caregiver, complete the application on the Cancer Center's website or call (205) 934-1603 for more information.