ENCIRCLING ARMS CANCER SUPPORT GROUP FOUNDER HONORED.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Even when the day is all about her, 77-year-old Marcia Ray spends it helping others.

Other breast cancer patients, who, aided by the support group Ray started 12 years ago, focus every day on living with the disease rather than dying from it.

Or other breast cancer patients whose fears have been quelled by the outstretched arms of someone who's been there - someone like Ray.

Ray, founder of the Circle of Caring support group, is there for them. And to thank her, on Sunday, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center honored the Glendale resident at its 13th annual Evening of Wine and Roses.

She has been dubbed a ``Ray of Light'' for countless hours of supporting breast cancer patients since 1988, when she formed the Circle of Caring. Ray started the circle three years after being diagnosed herself. The group began with six women who were as scared and confused as she. Today, the circle has grown to 125.

``Talking to someone who's been there, who's sat in the chemotherapy chair, who's been in the radiation booth, it makes you feel like you're not alone,'' Ray said Friday, the day Glendale Memorial renamed its breast cancer center, the Marcia Ray Breast Center.

Linda Lynch, director of development for Glendale Memorial, said it's the first time in the hospital's history that any part of the facility has been named for a living person.

Standing in front of a wall that now bears her name, photograph and story, Ray took time out to sign a greeting card for a recently admitted hospital patient.

``I wanted to send her a little encouragement,'' she said in the sweet grandmotherly voice patients say they look forward to hearing once a month.

Gail Andriuzzo, 56, of Burbank met with Ray on Friday, as she does regularly, just to chat. Two years ago when the lump in Andriuzzo's breast tested cancerous, the 56-year-old said she could do little but sit in the corner and cry. And then, an article in the Daily News talked about Ray and her Circle of Caring and Andriuzzo opted to attend a meeting.

``I walked in with a wig, a handkerchief and an eyebrow pencil. It was like family. Everything wasn't OK, but it seemed OK. If you got hot, you could take off your wig, and no one would care,'' Andriuzzo said.

When first diagnosed, Andriuzzo feared she wouldn't live to see Christmas. The doctors had told her what to expect from radiation treatments and what medication to take. They didn't, however, tell her how to live.

It was the darkest period in her life, she said.

``My husband planted a tree in the front yard and I thought, what's the point? I'm not going to see it grow,'' she said.

Andriuzzo continued going to the support group meetings and before long, even if she was depressed about something completely unrelated to her cancer, she came out of circle meetings feeling better about it.

So much better, in fact, that she felt an overwhelming need to give back to the community, so she began crocheting blankets for sick children.

Breast cancer survivor Aniela Grochowicki, 70, has been attending circle meetings for seven years. The Glendale resident considers herself a shy person but said the meetings always prompt her to say whatever it is she is feeling.

``Other people, people who have never been diagnosed with cancer, may say they want to know how you're doing, but really, it's hard for them to hear what you have to say, she said. ``Marcia is a godsend,'' Grochowicki said.

From January through May, Ray missed a lot of meetings because cancer cells again invaded her body. Always optimistic and good humored, Ray pulled a tuft of gray hair out from under her wig Friday and said her real hair is just about long enough to return the wig to the closet.

It's uncertain whether the cancer will return. It is uncertain whether she can beat it again, if it does return.

But Ray said she sees it in a different way, and through her others, like Andriuzzo, have too.

After all, Andriuzzo explained, ``I'm still here and that tree is taller than my house.''

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Photo:

Circle of Caring founder Marcia Ray, right, talks with cancer support group member Gail Andriuzzo in Glendale on Friday.

Eric Grigorian/Special to the Daily News