Product Description

Challenging Cancer shows people with cancer how they can stop feeling like victims and regain control of their lives. Cancer patients describe in their own words their strategies for coping with their situation, and demonstrate that it is possible to turn a crisis into an opportunity. The book centers around a weekend seminar and includes in-depth comment from those patients attending and their experiences and challenges from diagnosis to survival. There is a chapter on the story of Dr Vicky Clement-Jones, who having been diagnosed with ovarian cancer - found there was little information available about the practical aspects of living with cancer nor information about the disease from a patient's perspective. Together with Dr Maurice Slevin she founded CancerBACUP in 1985.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #824931 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Woman magazine
"..brings together the thoughts, ideas, hopes and experiences of doctors, patients and the families who care for those with cancer. Unbelievably optimistic."

The Lancet
"..a psychologist and a consultant oncologist suggest how patients can learn to cope with a "cancer crisis"..chaos can be turned into control and opportunity."

Practical Health
"..uses the voices of patients in group discussions..to show how the quality of life can be retained, and in some cases actually enhanced after cancer."

Customer Reviews

Helping you to define questions to which you will need an answer
When I was first diagnosed with colon cancer, everyone said to me "you are a positive person, Iain, you will fight back and win against this"............well intentioned advice to be sure, but somehow it was advice in a vacuum.........what does `fight' mean when the `enemy' is a disease? How can you fight something that you can't see? And when `win' can only be truly measured after 5 years, it makes `this is a marathon, not a sprint' sound absurd, when victory for me in the marathon would be to beat 5 hours.......

That's where this excellent book helps. It is written by Dr Maurice Slevin, the leading oncologist and Dr Nira Kfir, the psychiatrist recognised for her work in crisis management. They set out to show how it is possible to fight back through better knowledge, emotional support and the provision of options to help to trigger the change in people's lives necessary if they are to take control of their lives again.

Everyone will take different learning points from the book..........and there are certainly too many to list here..........for me the three things I found most valuable were:

1. `Fighting back' does not have as much meaning if it is for you personally.......it will have more purpose if it is put it in the context of the impact on others (family or wider society)......which allows you to set goals, which can then be extended or refined as medical circumstances allow................

2. Patients would do well to recognise that it is often their supporters (family and friends) who are in the real front-line...........one of the reasons for this is that there are two teams supporting the patient.......a medical team who will multiply in times of need.........and the support team, who each have to rise to new levels of support, when the same need appears............

3. For those in their first chemotherapy regime (where everyone's life has a discipline for up to six months)...........to think through what you and your supporters will do when the regime ends..........where you will want to have made some decisions in advance, or run the risk of entering a period of waiting (a void) that could be quite disorientating, especially for those who have enjoyed a busy life before............

Summary: a `must read' for those who have been diagnosed with cancer and their supporters. It should enable them and their supporters to hold an open discussion on how they intend to regain control of their lives, so they can fight back, take control and find options best suited to them.