by Shannon Flaherty

KCBS-TV featured City of Hope’s “Writing for Wellness” workshop and its founder and facilitator, Julie Davey, on a Feb. 24 news broadcast. KCBS honored Davey as its ”Woman of the Week” after one of her students, City of Hope patient Anna Escobosa, wrote to KCBS to nominate her.

Davey is a former City of Hope patient and a retired professor of journalism. She started the “Writing for Wellness” biweekly workshop four years ago with the support of City of Hope’s Department of Patient, Family and Community Education.

“We write about what we’re going through, and you might think it would be depressing and that we’d be crying all the time, but it’s the opposite. We celebrate life and deal with what life brings us,” said Davey.

Held in Hope Village Theater, the workshop gives patients, families, caregivers and staff the opportunity to write and share prose and poetry as a means of expression and healing.

“Julie Davey’s students are usually not aware that they have the ability to be a writer or a poet. But with Julie’s encouragement, she instructs each to begin with a thought and one word. It is amazing how such simplicity can produce wonderful works within the class,” said Jeanne Lawrence, Department of Patient, Family and Community Education. “It is true words can help in the healing of any catastrophic event in our lives. Julie is not only CBS’ “Woman of the Week,” but City of Hope’s gold medal winner every day.”