Story and photo by Marc Glass

Kerry (Cox) Irish ’90, program director of the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer, Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Center, gently demurs when asked if the work of counseling cancer patients is emotionally exhausting.

“It’s a privilege to connect with people at a point where all the superficial stuff has fallen away,” says the licensed clinical social worker who specializes in oncology social work. “Theirs is a time of reckoning and reflection. Each patient comes with different strengths, gifts and challenges. It’s not for everyone, but I rarely leave the day drained and sad.”



Since its opening in late March 2008 with funding from Grey’s Anatomy actor and Buckfield native Patrick Dempsey (whose mother survived ovarian cancer through primary treatment at CMMC), the Dempsey Center has provided some 3,000 patients and caregivers with a range of holistic services. Reflecting Irish’s belief that “not everybody wants to receive support by talking to someone else,” the Dempsey Center offers massage therapy and yoga, as well as support groups and psycho-educational programs, many involving expressive arts therapy. The Center also provides individual counseling and a helpline for resource referral. All services are free, says Irish, who regularly consults with Patrick on the direction and focus of the Center’s programming, such as the Dempsey Challenge bike tour and run/walk event scheduled for Oct. 4 in Lewiston.

While the Dempsey Center is a comprehensive resource for cancer patients and their families, Irish encourages her clients to let others help—which, she admits, is easier said than done in Maine’s highly “self-reliant” culture. “When patients allow their family and friends to support them, they, in turn, are actually helping their loved ones to cope by giving them an opportunity to be useful,” she says.

Irish knows of what she speaks. After graduating from UMF with a concentration in family services, she enrolled in USM’s counselor-education master’s degree program with plans to become a school guidance counselor. She found a different calling, however, when her grandmother succumbed to cancer in 1991.

“The social worker at CMMC who helped my grandmother was a deeply compassionate, calming person,” explains Irish, who says some in her large family “wanted to go to the ends of the earth with treatment,” while others believed in hospice care. The social worker helped them find common ground and inspired Irish to pursue a master’s in social work at the Univ. of Georgia.

Irish says her personal identification with clients is shared by Mary Dempsey, sister of Patrick and the Center’s coordinator, who—through 28 years of working as a patient access specialist at CMMC—expertly helped her own family navigate cancer treatment. The journey, Irish says, can be transformative.

“If you ask survivors, not one of them would have asked for the experience and it’s nothing they would care to repeat. But it’s something that often has a profoundly positive impact on their lives,” she says. “The experience can redefine their relationships and help them see a new life that’s waiting for them. It’s a blessing to witness their grace, courage and hope.”