Jamie Cooper relied on integrated wellness practices like yoga and massage when they were diagnosed with triple positive breast cancer in 2022.
To provide the same support and community for other cancer patients, Cooper founded Future Perfect Integrative Wellness with their late friend Dara Metcalfe McCord, a licensed massage therapist and reiki master.
The Atlanta-based nonprofit offers retreats, grief and healing circles, massage therapy, yoga classes, and other wellness services for cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers.
Building a cancer support network
Future Perfect Integrative Wellness was born from the deep friendship Cooper and McCord developed during their own cancer journeys.
“We’ve always felt that nobody should have to go through a diagnosis alone, and yet so many people seem to be recreating the wheel,” said Cooper, Future Perfect’s co-director of integrative programming
While Cooper received expert medical care at two local, highly-rated cancer hospitals, they said that integrative wellness practices, like working with a naturopath and taking yoga classes, really made a difference in their quality of life.
A former Air Force health and wellness supervisor turned certified wellness coach, Cooper teamed up with McCord to launch Future Perfect’s nonprofit.
In addition to yoga nidra (yogic sleep) and mindfulness classes for cancer patients and survivors, the organization provides cancer doula services. These trained professionals help patients with practical tasks like organizing paperwork and scheduling appointments, as well as advocating for their wishes with medical professionals and family members.
Holding space for grief
Future Perfect works in collaboration with The Grief House in Decatur, which offers additional support to cancer patients, caregivers, and allies.
“Our whole mission is to work with community members to remember that we can support each other in our grief, and that this doesn’t have to be something that’s experienced in isolation,” said Sascha Demerjian, a licensed social worker and executive director and co-founder of The Grief House.
The nonprofit offers free healing circles for survivors, movement and sound healing classes, and creativity activities such as candle-making and crafting.
The Grief House has also teamed up with Future Perfect to launch the Death Care Collective to help families navigate end-of-life decisions.
Similar to how Cooper and others in McCord’s personal support system stepped in to help her during her final days, the Collective will provide companionship and resources for cancer patients. It can connect them with mental health professionals, provide practical support like managing meal delivery and pet-walking, and assist in organizing memorial services.
The Grief House recently named its memorial packages after McCord, to honor her legacy of caregiving and community-building.
“I feel really honored that we could honor Dara in this way, because she was really pivotal in its creation,” Demerjian said.
This October, Cooper and other friends will run the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University 5K in McCord’s memory.
It’s the hospital where she received cancer treatment, and her legacy lives on in the work she built with Future Perfect and The Grief House.
