Three women sat on a flight back from a restorative cancer retreat last year, freshly pampered and determined to bring the experience to Akron.
For two days and two nights last April, Eileen Brown, Marisa Fatica and Kelly Inglett didn’t have to worry about their day-to-day responsibilities. Instead, they spent their time relaxing and healing after each underwent treatments and surgeries following their breast cancer diagnoses in 2023 and 2024.
The three Akron-area women held their first retreat, called The Healing Sanctuary, just five months after first visiting Mary’s Place by the Sea in New Jersey. Since then, they have served about 45 women and have a waiting list of about 230 more.
The Healing Sanctuary gives cancer survivors space to step away from their daily responsibilities and make room for deep healing. It helps participants feel ready to take control over the next phase of their lives, filling a gap in survivorship care, said Fatica, a Bath resident who works in real estate and has two children.
“We really want to provide this to anybody that wants to come,” Fatica said. “We know how to treat the cancer — I don’t know that there’s a lot of support for living with cancer or living post-cancer.”
Each month, the nonprofit retreat hosts five adult women who have been diagnosed with any type of cancer — and does so for free. The women must be in active treatment or no more than two years post-treatment.
Patients often feel like they’re not seen while they have cancer, said Brown, a Fairlawn resident, mother of four and a partner at a management consultant firm who took a hiatus to focus on the retreat.
“Because they’re finished with their treatment, they feel like everyone expects them to get back to life as normal,” Brown said. “Cancer changes you forever.”
What the retreat involves
Women at the retreat are often seen doing yoga, meditating or holding hands sitting around a table. Some retreats have been held at the O’Neil House, a bed and breakfast with large windows, a rustic feel and lots of greenery. More recently, the women have begun to use donors’ homes, taking over an entire house for the retreat.
Participating in the retreat can be an emotional experience, Brown said. She and her friends make sure to place multiple boxes of tissues around the retreat house.
“As part of this traumatic experience of cancer, you need your body to heal physically, emotionally,” Brown said.
To aid in that process, the women were thoughtful about crafting each day of the retreat’s 48-hour schedule, Fatica said.
Typically, the first day of the retreat involves group activities. Day Two allows guests to spend more time independently, getting facials, massages, reiki treatments and more.
Fatica said The Healing Sanctuary’s ultimate goal is to make guests feel cared for through a luxurious experience. She believes surrounding guests with love, compassion and support makes them stronger when they walk out the door and return to their lives.
Fatica said she wants to “get them away from the doctors, get them away from the appointments and just really pamper them and let them feel like a human again and reconnect with themselves as well as each other.”
The guest experience
Sarah Bokovitz thought her life would go back to normal when she finished treatment for her breast cancer. But that hope was far from the truth, she said.
Bokovitz, who was in one of the first groups to go to The Healing Sanctuary, said she continues to deal with scans, complications from cancer and the fear that it will come back.
“It just really took a mental toll,” the 37-year-old Akron resident said.
Bokovitz, a professor, nurse practitioner and mother of two, said the retreat was exactly what she needed. She was able to step away from her outside responsibilities and focus on rejuvenation.
“It helped me relax, have connection and a sense of peace that I needed on a physical, mental and emotional level,” she said. “It helped me find the light again.”
Relationships developed at the retreat
Bokovitz said she cherishes the friendships she now has with the other women who were in her retreat group. They find strength in each other, she said.
Brown said the relationship she, Fatica and Inglett developed through each of their cancer journeys is one of support and encouragement.
“There might be a few in the beginning that aren’t talking and don’t want to share as much, and by the end, they’re all talking, and they’re all engaged, and they all want to have a say in our discussions,” said Inglett, a mother of three who lives in Copley and manages Yoga Bliss. “It’s really fulfilling to see from start to finish.”
Fatica said many people come to the retreat feeling isolated and alone but leave empowered and with a community of supportive women to lean on.
“Once you meet somebody that has gone through the cancer journey, you instantly bond, and you can get through all of the initial introductions and just talk about what it felt like,” Brown said. “I don’t think someone understands what it’s like to go through cancer until you’ve actually been there.”
Filling the gap for deeper cancer support
Brown said that, at the retreat, the group often talks about life after cancer as a new chapter and gives guests concrete steps to help take control over the next phase of their lives.
Cancer is not just a physical illness, said Dr. Azka Ali, Fatica’s oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic. It also has an impact on patients’ emotional and mental well-being.
Ali said many of the treatments and therapies used to treat breast cancer in particular have side effects that can impact a patient’s mood or worsen anxiety or depression. Many cancer patients struggle with brain fog, she said.
Ali said the biggest barriers to using available resources are time, access and cost. Because The Healing Sanctuary is a completely free experience, it takes that last barrier away.
Other free local resources include the cancer wellness center Stewart’s Caring Place and The Gathering Place, which focuses on providing extra resources to cancer patients addressing the mind, body and spirit. The Cleveland Clinic also offers multiple resources for cancer patients, such as acupuncture, yoga, reiki, massages, music and art therapy.
“I think what we’re learning about a lot of chronic illness treatment and a lot of cancer treatment is that it really is a team sport,” Ali said. “It’s not just a patient working with their surgeon or their radiation oncologist or their medical oncologist, but it’s really a type of disease that needs multidisciplinary care.”
What’s next?
Brown said The Healing Sanctuary’s next phase will be focused on refining its fundraising process so it can continue to expand.
Currently, funding comes from donations, Brown said. The radio station WQMX has helped fundraise, and the women have received around $18,000 through those donations, Inglett said.
Local restaurants have donated food, local practitioners have volunteered their time and community members have donated meals, snacks, yoga mats and more to support the retreat.
Fatica said the group hopes to someday build their own sanctuary that includes a spa, sauna, workout room and more to create a luxurious getaway. She wants people to feel like “they’ve left their life and transported,” she said. They also hope to do the retreats more often.
“It’s the most rewarding and fulfilling thing to be able to give women that are going through such a horrific time a few days of peace and happiness,” Fatica said. “That’s the greatest gift you could ever give anybody.”
Lauren Cohen is a community reporting intern for the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron. The position is funded through a grant from the Knight Foundation, which is a funder of Signal Akron.
