The latest New Yorker of the Week is known as the bead lady, and she's clasping a passion to offer those battling cancer much-needed retreat. NY1's John Schiumo filed the following report.

Two months into chemotherapy, Tiffany Foust started making jewelry. It was the first time since her cancer diagnosis that she stopped feeling sick. 

"I physically felt better," she said. "It was a complete distraction. It was something that I took away and found that I can do these little outlets to not make me feel the physical pain."

Introducing Tiffany to that outlet was Maryann Corey. She runs a retreat in Pennsylvania created for women and children undergoing cancer treatment. 

The experience is free. Maryann calls it Lonakana, Hawaiian for "gift from heaven."

"Just to get away from the medical appointments, the stress, talking about their cancer and everything. Just a place to escape and be quiet so they can recharge and get back into the battle," Corey says.

Today, Mary is trying to expand Lonakana to a 64-acre space in Pennsylvania. Through an online fundraiser, she wants to buy the property and bring rest and relaxation to even more people like Tiffany. 

“You just completely forget about the day-to-day that we're going through, and it really rejuvenated me and really just made me feel like I wasn’t going through treatment. I felt normal again," Tiffany says.

The retreat is just one piece of Maryannn's nonprofit, The Portable Playhouse. Founded 16 years ago, it strings together a network of volunteers who work to inspire patients in 17 hospitals and cancer cancers throughout the tristate area.

"From the minute I met her in the lobby at Mount Sinai, she just exudes compassion and warmth, and she is the real deal," says Fran Kanner, volunteer with The Portable Playhouse. "I mean, you know that she is doing this just to help others."

"Sometimes in our lives, we don't feel like we have control, or we see so many things, or people who are terminal and especially children," Corey says. "We can't change that.  But we can change right now.  And it carries me through the whole week." 

So, for comforting worried minds by connecting creativity and clarity, Maryann Corey is our New Yorker of the Week.

For more about the nonprofit, visit theportableplayhouse.org.

To donate to the fundraiser, use the widget below. (App users can visit this link.)