Cancer: Caring with Compassion

A cancer diagnosis can cause significant life challenges, which if left unaddressed, can result in feelings of overwhelm and hopelessness. Learning how others responded may help you understand your own feelings and find ways to cope with the difficult issues that a cancer diagnosis brings. Caregivers face their own unique challenges like compassion fatigue and making time for self-care. For those on the outside looking in—friends, extended family, and other supporters—there is much about the cancer experience that we don’t understand.

During this interactive two-hour panel discussion, participants will learn from the experiences of two cancer survivors and two caregivers as they share how to care for yourself and others in a compassionate way. This seminar will benefit those with a cancer diagnosis, as well as those who care for and support them. Inspired by the books Don’t Sing Songs to a Heavy Heart and Cancer Now What by Dr. Kenneth Haugk, in addition to booklets produced by National Cancer Institute, panelists will cover relevant topics such as:

• Rollercoaster feelings and learning how to cope with them

• How to talk to family and friends about cancer

• Working with your health care team and advocating for yourself

• Asking for and accepting help from others

• What compassionate care looks like

• Creating a new normal and managing day-to-day life with cancer  

Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists at the end of the program. Light refreshments will be provided. Please register by September 16th.