There is no support group in the Lawrence-Topeka area for cancer victims who are teens or young adults.

Lisa Doty, 25, Topeka, plays with her son Landen, 2, on their living room floor on Friday. Doty, who was diagnosed with bladder cancer at the age of 23, is working with the American Cancer Society to start an area support group for cancer patients and survivors between the ages of 13 and 25.

Now there are some people trying to remedy that, and Lisa Doty is among them.

Doty was just starting to raise a family a little more than two years ago when she was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

The Topeka woman found herself alone, facing new and terrifying experiences and an uncertain future. She wished she had someone to talk to who was close to her own age and going through similar experiences.

But the only person Doty knew then who had cancer was her best friend’s mother, and she was in her 50s.

“It’s kind of hard when you have cancer to talk to your parents and your husband,” Doty said. “I needed someone to talk to and there just wasn’t anyone out there.”

That’s why Doty, now 25 and cancer-free for nearly two years, is working with the American Cancer Society in Topeka to see that other young adults and teenagers don’t have to deal with the same concerns she had. She approached society representatives with the idea several months ago.

On Wednesday, Doty will attend a meeting in the Topeka & Shawnee Public Library to launch a new support group for cancer patients and survivors between the ages of 13 and 25. Also attending will be Gwen McClain, a counselor for the cancer society. It is an attempt to start what they think is the only cancer support group for that age category in the Topeka-Lawrence area.

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The meeting will be from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Jett and Tim Elmer Room of the library, 1515 S.W. 10th Ave. Anyone who is a cancer patient or cancer survivor, or is a parent of one, is invited to attend, no matter where they live.

Cancer Society officials don’t know how many people to expect, but fliers and news releases have been passed out in Lawrence and Topeka and at Kansas University and Washburn University.

Lisa Doty leans over to kiss her dog, Kipper.

It also was not known how many young cancer patients or survivors there are in this area. But cancer statistics among teenagers and young adults in Kansas have been slowly increasing the past few years, said Jennifer Taylor, spokeswoman for the cancer society.

The latest statistics available show that in 2000, there were 108 people diagnosed with cancer in Kansas in the targeted age group. In 2001, that number increased to 124. Today, that number is expected to be about 200, Taylor said.

“It has been going up a little bit each year,” she said.

Young people with cancer wrestle with some different psychological problems than do their older counterparts, McClain said.

Older people understand that they have lived a life, probably have married and have children, McClain said.

“Young kids have their whole life ahead of them,” she said. “They have their own dreams and aspirations. They are just in a different developmental situation.”

Lisa Doty, 25, Topeka, reads to her son Landen, 2.

Moreover, there are more older people who have cancer, McClain said. Some of their friends may have it and they have had the experience of seeing friends die.

Because of cancer and the treatment young people have to go through, their school life and personal relationships are affected and they face the fear of the unknown almost alone, McClain said.

“They may have been very physically fit and healthy and now that’s diminished,” she said. “Older people have started to reconcile to the fact that maybe they are not getting around like they used to.”

Doty, a student at Washburn who also works in the university’s English department, didn’t have to go through the chemotherapy treatments. But those who do may especially need a support group, she said.

“There are so many other people who were not as lucky as I was and they probably need to talk about it,” Doty said.