Avoiding and Living with and Beyond the big ‘C’
Jane Revell-Higgins

If there was a sure fire method or list of proven do’s and don’ts that would ensure that we and our loved ones never contract cancer, you can be sure that we’d all follow it like a mantra. Especially those among us who have undergone or are undergoing treatment, or who have cared for others through their illness, or who have lost loved ones to the disease. We’ll grasp at any straw offered.
But there isn’t a magic formula to ensure we can avoid being affected nor a miracle cure, yet. What there is however is basic commonsense. We can reduce our exposure to known catalysts like smoking, traffic pollution, and asbestos. We can eat more healthily and introduce a wider range of chemical free fresh fruits and vegetables and unprocessed foods into our diets, improve our bowel function, take exercise, ensure that we don’t burn in the sun, reduce our alcohol intake, use only natural products to cleanse our bodies, avoid cosmetics and toiletries that contain known chemical irritants, take supplements to counter deficiencies in our diets… & so on…
Of course, even living more healthily provides no guarantees that any of us will escape the disease, we will simply have improved our overall health and well-being and have developed a stronger immune system. The latter equips the body to better deal with the adverse affects and side effects of the radical treatments used to fight the cancer, many of which are often worse in the short term than the symptoms of the disease itself. Better to be prepared than not is sound advice we can all act upon.
The worst aspect for many of us who are diagnosed with cancer is the shadow of fear and ignorance that accompanies this disease. We are, most of us, attuned to believe that cancer is fatal and that a diagnosis is the start of our farewell journey from this life to the next. We are left to face the terrible task of informing our loved ones that we have the disease and of dealing with their emotions as well as our own. Some of us are better at this than others. We quickly discover deeply buried emotions and find that we can cry, and cry we do.
BUT a diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean we’re on the way out. In many cases it is merely the start of a new journey in which we must face radical treatment in order to halt the cancer in its tracks and, hopefully eradicate it completely. This can include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy and a lengthy recovery process. No one will pretend that the treatment is painless or without adverse side effects. It is tough. So we’re both ill, terrified, and about to have our bodies filled with chemicals, zapped at and “assaulted” – in what a recovering friend recently referred to as the “Chernobyl ward”. We put as brave a face on it as we can as much for our loved ones as for ourselves, we place our trust in our Doctors, and turn to our faith for support, but even there’s a terrified person inside who desperately needs more help.
There are many survivors out there and it is survivors who can bring us the greatest hope and support during our darkest hours. They will tell us exactly how gruelling we can expect our treatment regime to be and empathise with us. They will tell us what to expect, how much it will hurt, how disorienting it is and what they discovered
helped them through their darkest hours. They are also a living testament to the fact that pain passes, treatment takes effect and recovery is possible. Most oncology departments and GPs have details of support groups which can be absolutely invaluable in helping the newly diagnosed patient and his/her family members through their darkest times.
Some cancer sufferers do not survive. It would be wrong to suggest otherwise. Research to find more effective drugs and treatments is ongoing and will eventually succeed but any discovery or breakthrough can take years of testing before it can become widely available. There are also many barriers to patients obtaining the best drugs for their ongoing treatment via the National Health Service due to the very high costs involved (and monies being wasted unnecessarily). It is these areas which require the full attention and lobbying of us all of us in order that the best treatment is universally available to those that need it – and that no one is denied a life extending drug simply because their regional health authority has exhausted its budget).
Many sufferers find a depth of courage and strength that they didn’t realise they possessed before they were diagnosed and find themselves able to express their love and faith in ways that they never knew they could. Much as cancer tears lives apart it also serves to galvanise families and friends and to set them off on their own journeys to help other sufferers. This is why we see and applaud such strong support for the major charities involved in cancer research, specialist nursing, and the hospice movement. A life lost to cancer is never lost in vain. Love and memories live on in countless ways.