Yoga project raises cancer-fighting funds for Mother's Day

Local participants in a national Yoga Day promoted Yoga for cancer patients -- and to raise money for cancer research

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One of thousands of nationwide yoga events held on Mother's Day weekend, as part of "project:OM", and sharing a message of health and wellness ? and helping to fund breast cancer research ? was on May 12, at Sellwood Yoga.

"I am a Legacy breast surgeon who specializes in breast cancer and treating breast cancer patients, and have been practicing yoga for twenty years," revealed one of the two class leaders, Alivia K. Cetas, MD.

The doctor said she'd taken yoga teacher training, and that was where she'd met her co-leader that evening, Natalie Bowker, a licensed marriage and family therapist who works at an OB/GYN clinic as the medical system's behaviorist.

"Having found yoga very beneficial for my own personal life, I've also seen its value for people who receive a diagnosis [of cancer], for them as they are accepting their diagnosis and choosing treatment options, for them as they go through treatment, and then get beyond their treatment," Cetas told THE BEE ? as participants, many of them cancer survivors, arrived for the session.

"We're trying to show the value of following a practice ? be it yoga, dance, meditation, or helping in the community," Cetas said. We don't know if the people coming here want to actually do yoga this evening, but they're curious enough to be here, to donate money, and to give of their time to be here to learn more about this.

"Sellwood Yoga is a very special yoga community; the owners of created an atmosphere of acceptance and accessibility for yoga," observed Cetas. Funds raised that evening were donated to "Susan G. Komen".