Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit and our Cancer Support Community Partners uplift and strengthen people impacted by cancer by providing support, fostering compassionate communities, and breaking down barriers to care.
Everyone impacted by cancer receives the support they want and need throughout their experience.
Our namesake, Gilda Radner, and native Detroiter, was one of the original cast members of “Saturday Night Live.” Throughout her time on the show, she created a number of enduring characters, including Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella and Lisa Loopner.
Laughter, kindness and love were central themes of Gilda’s career and life, including in her marriage to actor and comedian Gene Wilder.
Gilda was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1985. Gilda, surrounded by love and support, recognized she still felt alone, and sought support from a young counselor, Joanna Bull. Joanna worked in a little yellow house in Santa Monica, California, called The Wellness Community. The Wellness Community was started by Harriott and Harold Benjemin, following Harriett’s cancer diagnose – at the time, a groundbreaking network of cancer support.
Gilda found a community of understanding, resources and confidence. Of her experience, she said that having cancer gave her membership in an elite club she’d rather not belong to. Gilda passed away in 1989, but her legacy lived on when her husband and friends established Gilda’s Club and the first red door opened in New York City in 1995.
Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit, with the support of eight strong women and Gilda’s brother Michael, began in 1993 and open our Royal Oak doors in 1998.
Pictured above, our founders:
Front row left to right: Sherry Medsker, Maureen Martinez, Jackie Grekin, Carol Silverman.
Back row left to right: Geri Lester, Ina Kadish, Gilda’s Representative, Bernice Gadon, Marsha Gershenson
In 2009, to increase efficiencies of two wonderful psychosocial organizations, Gilda’s Club Worldwide and The Wellness Community became one organization under the umbrella of The Cancer Support Community (CSC).
Today, our network has more than 200 locations in 50 markets worldwide. To learn more about the broader network, visit https://www.cancersupportcommunity.org/
