New community event inspired by patients

Translating for Spanish-speaking cancer patients, Ana Fauvet kept hearing the same phrase:

“Me siento Sola.”

“I feel lonely.”

“They kept saying, ‘I’m so lonely.’ As a professional, I can’t befriend my patients,” said Fauvet, a medical interpreter at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital (UCH). She knew that in the past, support groups for Hispanic cancer patients in the metro region hadn’t worked, for cultural and practical reasons. Still, she kept hearing patients say, “‘I can’t talk to my family in my country, I don’t want them to see me like this and my family here — I don’t want to burden them.’”

To help, Fauvet had to look no further than her own family. Her aunt, Tere Castello, had supported her throughout her own challenges with rheumatoid arthritis. What’s more Castello survived breast cancer herself, an experience that inspired her to launch Angeles Sin Fronteras (Angels without Borders) a non-profit that provides scarves, wigs, makeup and other items to women fighting the disease.

“She’s my inspiration,” Fauvet said. “She’s the reason I do what I do.”

Fauvet called her aunt with the idea of bringing Angeles Sin Fronteras to Colorado, at least for a day. “She said, ‘Just tell me the date.’”

She decided the date would be April 27 and the event would be called Nadie Lucha Sola (No One Fights Alone).

Her aunt supplied logistics, and expertise – and her foundation contributed wigs. And when Fauvet shared her plans on social media, others began chipping in as well. After she appeared on a Hispanic radio program, a listener who was a professional makeup artist volunteered to bring her team to do makeup for the women. UCHealth co-workers connected her with food-truck operators and jewelry makers. The Aurora Police Department provided comfy PJs. Donations for goodie bags poured in.

Then, on April 27, a “massive snow storm” hit and she feared no one would show up. Despite the weather, more than 40 people turned out and for three hours they were fitted with wigs, picked up makeup kits, and generally were pampered.

None of this is in Fauvet’s job description. But she brings more than language skills to her role as medical interpreter, including a background that provides special empathy for patients.

At 14, constant, debilitating pain eventually led to Fauvet being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She underwent several surgeries and had to use a wheelchair for a while. The diagnosis itself came only after her pain was dismissed and mischaracterized, something Fauvet believes resulted from cultural stereotypes. Those teenage experiences drive the adult Fauvet to do everything she can for her patients.

Anyone who has seen her in action, knows Fauvet won’t let anything stop her from doing more for her patients, including hosting Nadie Lucha Sola every year.

“This has been such a blessing. Seeing an idea I had come to life has been one of the most rewarding things in my life.”