Teri Barnhart, left, with her Elmore Angel, Pamela Tandberg, and Calli Tandberg.

Pamela Tandberg of Elmore is a caring and compassionate person. That is why she joined an organization called ‘Chemo Angels’ in June of 2002. She read about their work in Woman’s World magazine.

As ‘Angel Pamela’ she has been a friend to several persons with cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy.

They have varied in age and types of cancers, and also locations around the country. None of them have lived close by and Tandberg never met any of them.

Until recently.

For a year and a half Tandberg has been ‘angeling’ a woman in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Teri Barnhart was undergoing chemo treatments for breast cancer.

“I sent her many notes, e-mails and gifts,” Tandberg says. “That is what a chemo angel does.”

But the two developed a closer bond than usual, which Tandberg describes as a special friendship, almost like sisters.

“We are just so much alike, and our lives are so similar,” Tandberg says. “We both have daughters named Sarah, both like the same things, we have almost the same birthday.”

When Tandberg learned that Barnhart would be participating in her Relay for Life event on June 6 in West Virginia, a plan developed in her mind.

“I love to surprise people,” she says. “I also had a desire to meet Teri and talk in person.”

Tandberg decided to fly out to Martinsburg and surprise Barnhart at the Relay for Life event. She also decided to take her 7-year-old granddaughter, Calli Tandberg, along.

She set the whole thing up with Barnhart’s daughter, Sarah.

For more of this story, see this week’s Register.