Cancer survivors thrive with help of University Medical Center speech pathologists [Video]

NEW ORLEANS — It’s a type of cancer that makes survivors feel disfigured, and that people are staring at them. So, some don’t feel like they can go out in public. 

But a support group, and the survivors in it, are turning that all around.

At one time, the men and women in this group were strangers. Now they credit their happiness, and strength to live a full life, to one another.

“I felt that life was over. I want to say that the first year, or the first couple of years, I didn’t get out of the house at all,” said Ricardo Garcia, a cancer survivor who was diagnosed in his mid-20s.

What they all have in common is cancer in the head, neck, or throat. Many had vocal cords removed. …