OMAHA, Neb. -- With more people surviving a cancer diagnosis, medical professionals are focusing on what comes after treatment. A local cancer survivorship program is offering patients help as they try to return to normal lives.

“My first year was more just walk-the-walk, put one foot in front of the other,” said breast cancer survivor Mary Key Eiting. “My second year is moving from a victim to a survivor.”

Eiting said a big part of her transition has been a cancer survivorship program that she started a year after her diagnosis.

“That cancer survivorship program came at such a good time for me because it helped me meet, in one day, with all these people,” she said. “They gave me a treatment plan and focused me on where to go from there.”

The survivorship program is a dual effort between the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Nebraska Medical Center. It is divided into parts focusing on the long-term needs of all cancer patients, and a special section for lymphoma and breast cancer patients.

“They come for half a day and are seen by a multi-disciplinary team composed of a nutritionist, physical therapist, Dr. Derrington, an internist, and myself, the nurse,” said oncology nurse Susan Daubman.

In order to participate, patients need to be referred by their oncologist.

Daubman said it’s important to help patients shift their focus from their cancer treatment to their general health and well-being.

“Sometimes patients may have anxiety, depression and fear of recurrence of their cancer,” she said. “Some patients may have had a cancer diagnosis, but they also have hypertension or hyperlipidemia or diabetes and these are other conditions that definitely need to be followed.”

Eiting said the survivorship clinic is making a difference.

“I was always hopeful there would be a future, but it was just so overwhelming,” she said. “It does get better. The fog lifts. You move on. Now, I have two grandchildren I didn’t have then. You know, life goes on.”