Darlene Buckingham knew what cancer looked like — it had wrapped itself around her family for so long. But she was shocked as she listened to the diagnosis from her doctor.

“Breast cancer. At 48, that’s not what you expect,” Buckingham said. “I don’t think anybody could be prepared to hear that you have cancer.”

The hospital became a familiar place.

It was where doctors outlined the nature of her battle. Where her hair was shaved off and she learned how to wear a wig. It was where she heard she was cancer-free and then where she learned of its after-effects — such as early menopause or the fear attached to check-ups to ensure it wasn’t back.

“I had my family, and great doctors, but there needs to be a place to get answers and support that doesn’t make you feel like a patient,” Buckingham said.

Buckingham is now an advisory board member of Cancer Support Community Kalispell, which opened its house for the first time on Tuesday. The home with a red door sits on the edge of a neighborhood. It gives a sense of normalcy, even though those who enter it may be fighting for their lives or relearning how to live after surviving the battle.

Cancer Support Community Kalispell was created last year in affiliation with Kalispell Regional Healthcare. It’s designed as a place for people experiencing cancer to have emotional and practical support outside a doctor’s office.

Jim Oliverson with Kalispell Regional Healthcare said the hospital realized there was a piece of health care that was missing.

“After someone has been treated, we take them to the door and say, ‘Have a nice life,’” he said.

He said while the hospital had improved support for patients in recent years, there was a need for an organization to support patients throughout their experience.

“If you go out on the street and stop 100 people arbitrarily, I seriously doubt that any one of those could say they don’t know someone who has been affected by cancer,” he said. “I frankly lost my brother-in-law recently, I lost my mother a couple years ago.”

Schelene Browning, the community program director, said the support home will connect cancer fighters to survivors.

“People get to come just because they need to be here, and for free,” she said.

The Cancer Support Community survives off of donations, fundraising and grants. Its programs are currently supported by a $11,500 grant by The Halt Cancer at X committee. Community officials said that funding will last for a few more months.

Browning said that in January the organization began offering programs such as restorative yoga, Pilates and support groups. But for the first time now, the Cancer Support Community has a home base.

Its bright door opens into a long kitchen, which will have dietitians who specialize in oncology to teach people how to make enjoyable meals even as the patients face mouth sores and restricted appetites due to chemotherapy treatments.

A family room is lined by bookshelves with titles such as “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.” Another room houses wigs, brushes and makeup in shelving surrounding a mirror. It was a space for people to get their heads shaved and to learn how to feel beautiful in the middle of treatments.

Dr. Melissa Hulvat, a breast surgical oncologist at the Bass Breast Center in Kalispell, said health is not the absence of disease.

“Hospitals, especially our hospitals if I might brag, are very good at eradicating disease. But it goes further,” she said. “How do we teach somebody to have cancer be that third person in their marriage they didn’t invite?”

In October, Buckingham will have been cancer-free for five years. As an advisory board member to Cancer Support Community, she said her experience with cancer created the bridge she needed to work with people going through the disease.

The first time she tried to talk with a woman who faced a diagnosis, she said the woman was guarded — until Buckingham pulled out a photo of herself losing her hair, the only photo she had taken during that time. The image was enough for the patient to start describing the weight of her disease. She didn’t have exact words, but that didn’t matter.

Buckingham understood.

“As a cancer patient, you feel like a number even with great family and doctors’ support,” she said. “But if someone shares your story of cancer, we’re connected — even if you don’t want to be connected in that way. You need that.”

For more information, go to http://cancersupportmontana.org/kalispell. To volunteer or donate, call 871-6176 or email [email protected].

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at [email protected].