For cancer patients, the first focus is on treatment. But one local nurse practitioner thought there needed to be something more. Her vision: a free cancer retreat center on the Hood Canal where patients could come to heal emotionally and spiritually.

More than 10 years after the first retreat, Harmony Hill continues to expand

“I heard about the center from a dear friend whose life was transformed. Before she went there, she was bitter, frightened and angry about her diagnosis, but after she returned, she was the most intensely alive person I have ever known.”

The statement from a letter written to Harmony Hill is one that founder Gretchen Schodde hears often. There's just something about the place. For many cancer patients, it’s a place where for the first time they can speak freely and not hold back.

"I had really been struggling with allowing myself to feel any kind of joy or any kind of happy moments because I felt if I did that I wasn't addressing the fear,” said breast cancer patient Emily Dade.

Emily was only 25, with two small children, when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Now the cancer has come back and spread, but this time she feels better able to cope.

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Harmony Hill is a free retreat center on the Hood Canal where patients come to heal emotionally and spiritually.

"Being in this space, being in the energy that is here filled my tank so that two weeks later when I got that metastatic diagnosis I think I was stronger in handling that because I had just been here,” she said. “So I’m very glad to be back again today.”

Karen James, also a breast cancer patient, admits to being a skeptic at first.

“I was rather resistant in coming to the hill,” she said. “They told me it was vegetarian-based, I said: ‘Are you kidding?’”

Her opinion soon changed.

"When we arrived, the warmth of the kitchen was so graceful and it hits you -- you just wanted to say: ‘I’m home,’” she said.

Besides tasty homegrown produce and recipes to take home, the three-day retreats also feature art therapy and classes in stress management.

Oncologist Dr. Frank Senecal, who serves on the board, calls it a place to heal.

"A patient who is more relaxed, perhaps a bit less anxiety, more comfortable and hopeful is going to be a patient I think is going to do better,” he said.

The rooms are cheerful. Everything is built green -- nothing toxic for immune systems that are already compromised.

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The retreats offer activities for stress management.

Best of all, there's no charge for patients or their caregivers.

“Had Harmony Hill not been free for me to come, I would not have been able to do it,” said Sally Suttle, a breast cancer patient.

The focus is on life and living it well.

"It has just really really helped me to know me a lot better and find myself,” said Cheryl Davis, a lymphoma patient.

Harmony Hill supports itself with grants, donations and private group rentals.

For more information on how to sign up for a retreat or for tickets to an upcoming benefit concert in Seattle, log onto the Web site or call (360) 898-2363.