Scott Brown Memorial Seeds of Hope Award
2008 Recipient

This award, named for Scott Brown who lost his battle with cancer in April, 2005, is to be presented each year at the Voices For Hope Benefit Banquet to a person or group exhibiting outstanding compassion and support for families coping with the diagnosis of cancer. Learn more about the award.

The definition of the Scott Brown Memorial Seeds of Hope award would seem to have been gleaned directly from the life of the 2008 recipient.

Lynn Eib knows all too well what it is like to battle cancer. Lynn traveled the road of surgery and chemotherapy after her doctor stood at her bedside and told her she had a tumor in her colon. Three days later she was in the hospital, and the tumor was removed. The verdict was in – five surrounding lymph nodes showed cancer and she would face chemotherapy.

During her treatment, Lynn suffered serious side effects but concluded that God was allowing her to suffer so that she could minister to suffering people. She couldn’t forget the other patients battling the same anxiety and despair, and she was compelled to help ease their suffering. So, in October, 1991, Lynn along with four other people started the Cancer Prayer Support Group that still exists today.

By the fifth anniversary of her surgery, Lynn longed to quit her current job and volunteer her time with cancer patients, but she had a daughter heading off to college. In April, 1996, Lynn's oncologist, Marc Hirsh phoned, asking if he and his wife could meet both Lynn and her husband (all four had been friends for years, socializing, vacationing and praying together during that time). Marc told her that he he wanted to better meet his patients' needs and had seen how her support group impacted people. He proposed that she join his practice as a Patient Advocate. His vision was that she would minister to the spiritual and emotion needs of cancer patients and their families. Then, as they say, the rest is history.

Lynn still facilitates the Cancer Prayer Support Group which may be the oldest such continuously meeting spiritually-based group in the country. In fact, it has spawned dozens of such similar groups around the nation.

As if her work as a patient advocate and her support group were not enough, Lynn travels throughout the country delivering inspirational seminars and talks to cancer survivors, their caregivers, and health professionals.

But the story doesn’t end there. Lynn has also authored three books. Her first, in 2002, When God and Cancer Meet is a book of powerful, inspiring stories about cancer patients and their families who have been touched by God in miraculous ways. It shows that, whether they were touched in body, mind or spirit, cancer is conquered when God and cancer meet. In 2006, Lynn wrote Finding the Light in Cancer’s Shadow: Hope, Humor and Healing After Treatment. It is full of helpful information on how to live during the years after receiving the diagnosis of cancer. The stories help people overcome the discouragements common to cancer survivors: fearing recurrence, having to face people who insist on their staying "positive", wondering whether life will ever be normal again. Those who have read it say that it is definitely a “book of hope”. In March, 2007, her most recent book, He Cares, was published. It is a New Testament study for people facing serious and life-threatening illness, helping patients and families to under that God cares about them.

We commend Lynn Eib on her dedication and service to her community and to cancer patients and their families. We are sure that everyone who knows her understands why she received this award.

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