More special than Thanksgiving dinner is perhaps the family meal Toni Stone went home to last Tuesday night.

“The kids are cooking as we speak,” Toni said from a hospital bed at St. Vincent Healthcare last week after her fourth and final chemotherapy treatment.

Stone, 44, went in for her first mammogram on June 5 of this year. Four days later, she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer.

“We caught it pretty early, but they were worried because it was an aggressive type of tumor,” she said, adding that it likely had been growing for nearly a decade.

Stone and her husband, Chris, recall the dates correlating to her breast cancer very well.

“On June 5, I had the mammogram, the biopsy on June 9 and I first talked to the surgeon on the 16th” of June, she said.

She also remembers July 28, the day she opted to have a full mastectomy on her right side.

It was also the day she met Sarah Rachac, who has been instrumental in Stone’s journey through her cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Rachac is the first patient navigator placed in a Montana hospital through the American Cancer Society’s Patient Navigator Program.

This project, formally launched in 2005, directly connects cancer patients to a cancer education and support specialist. The navigator serves as a personal guide to both the patients and caregivers while they struggle with various challenges from  a cancer diagnosis.

Since the start of the program, the American Cancer Society has placed more than 30 navigators in its Great West Division. St. Vincent Healthcare was one of four sites in a 12-state region to receive navigators this year.

Billings Clinic has several registered nurses who help cancer patients coordinate their care.

Recently, ACS has received additional support for its navigator program from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which has pledged $10 million to expand and develop 50  new navigator sites throughout the United States in the next five years.

“I try to meet with every person with a new cancer diagnosis, and their families,” said Rachac, who took her position in February.

The initial visit, Rachac said, can be 10 minutes or hours long — depending on the patient.

“I talk about the support groups that are available and financial resources,” she said. “Transportation issues come up, or questions about lodging.

“I typically check back in with them about three weeks later.”

For Toni and Chris Stone, Rachac made all the difference.

“When you are first diagnosed with cancer, a lot of people pop in and say, ‘Hey, I’m here for you,’ but they don’t come back.

“Sarah came back.”

After losing all her hair from chemo, Stone was at first concerned about her appearance.

Cancer, she said, is not something most people budget for.

“There would be no way I could afford a $200 wig,” she said. “One of the first things we did was go ‘shopping’ in Sarah’s office.”

Rachac had makeup and wigs in her office through the ACS “Look Good, Feel Better” program, which gives local cosmetologists the opportunity to teach women undergoing cancer treatment how to care for their nails and skin. The patients are also shown how to select and style wigs and wear scarves.

People don’t always realize, Stone said, that chemotherapy medications aren’t always just about making patients nauseous.

Her chemotherapy, she said, can often cause mouth sores, heartburn and cracked lips.

Rachac said not all chemotherapy drugs cause hair loss, so she doesn’t always get to shop for wigs with her patients.

The Stones maintain that it’s more about the emotional support Rachac provides than anything.

The families need to realize how much they are impacted by an individual’s cancer diagnosis, Toni said.

Her husband agreed.

“I think when Sarah comes back to check in is when the family members really start asking a lot of questions,” he said.

Rachac stressed that the navigator program, which is free, isn’t only for patients who are staying in the hospital.

In the 10 months since Rachac signed on, she has met and assisted nearly 350 newly diagnosed cancer patients. Throw spouses, caregivers, friends and others seeking information on top of that and that number easily doubles.

“I’m so thankful for this job,” Rachac said. “I find it so rewarding to see these patients and watching them take control of their situations.

“And I hope I empower them as well.”