Marianne Dahl Hopes To 'Color Out Cancer' At Cancer Infusion Centers
LONE TREE, Colo. (CBS4) - For nearly a year, Marianne Dahl has been visiting the same room, to sit in the same chair. But it's what she does during that time that is getting a lot of attention.
"In my cancer story I had to have two different chemos every three weeks, and I'd be here six to eight hours," Dahl said.
From the very first day she found comfort in coloring.
"Coming up with the different colors kept my mind going," she said.
She also found the message on each page she was coloring was a way to bring comfort to others.
"I really started it because there was a patient here that was really having a hard time, and I was in the middle of coloring, and it says 'stay strong,' and I handed it to her and she hugged me," Dahl said.
That moment was the motivation for her mission to Color Out Cancer, starting with the infusion room at the Sky Ridge Medical Center.
"Anything is possible," Dahl read one of the pieces of art. "I'm an example. Here I am, six months later I'm in remission, and I wasn't expecting it," she said.
The walls are now covered in her bright, inspiration and affirming pictures. Simone Remley has worked at Sky Ridge for more than four years.
"It really just reaches out to those patients who really need to hear those words, but aren't hearing them,"
She's cared for Dahl throughout her treatment and says her colorings are better than any piece of art bought off the shelf.
"It is so much more personal, and it has so much more meaning coming from a patient who has sat in this infusion center as much as this one has," Remley said.
Dahl's hope is anyone who finds themselves in that infusion center will find a message on the wall to keep them moving forward.
She encourages patients who feel a personal connection to a picture to take them off the wall and keep them.
"Anything that is going to put a smile on someone's face," Dahl said.
Dahl would like to Color Out Cancer in every infusion center in Colorado, but could use your help. If you'd like to send in a piece of art you can do so at coloroutcancer2020@gmail.com.