Life comes to a standstill when a cancer diagnosis is declared.
It is difficult for everybody, and the one who suffers the most is the person who is diagnosed and who undergoes treatment, pain and psychological trauma.
The family members go through anxiety as well. The health professionals have their own set of emotions, even if we believe treating patients can become mechanical after years of experience.
As a community, how we treat patients and what we say needs to be thought about with empathy, and for that, we need to know facts and knowledge.
The first day of the World Cancer Congress Summit and Exhibition, being held in the Sultanate of Oman, was dedicated to the community with an open day.
People listened, and when their turn came, they cleared doubts and raised concerns.
Among the attendees were cancer survivors and doctors. A doctor shared an experience of a lady who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had to go through a divorce, but is now well settled. Another touching story was about a lady who didn’t want to go through treatment because she didn’t want to lose her hair.
“I do not like to talk about my health issue. It was not just a lump that was removed. People say patients and survivors. I did not go through counselling sessions because I could not have been able to handle it.
She asked gently, “Why don’t people ask what happens after the treatment?”
What is survival?
We wish to live a happy and healthy life, I thought to myself.
Health is a big part of happiness.
And she interrupted my thoughts, “Sometimes the woman who survived finds herself alone because she had to go through a divorce. Now, if she is a housewife, then she is left helpless. So now she was saved to die of heartbreak?”
Inner strength needs to be achieved, one would say. But here the situation is different. The survivor has to overcome physical challenges and emotional upheaval.
So the question is, what after survival?
“Maybe we should do more for the survivors, such as support for plastic surgery,” my new friend suggested.
She, thankfully, is doing well and is working on her dream of having her own coffee shop. She is the ideal example of that, I thought to myself.
When Yuthar thought about starting a cause of cancer awareness, I was just beginning my career. It was amazing to see her determination.
Look where that determination has brought us to?
Twenty five years later, I am sitting at the official opening ceremony of the World Cancer Congress Summit and Exhibition being held in Oman. Around 43 nations are represented here, and the next three days, the Oman Cancer Association will conduct workshops, and an exhibition will showcase the latest technology available for cancer treatment. One of the workshops is training health workers on emotional intelligence.
And now we can wait for the Muscat Resolution.
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