Facing up to the big C …
Cressida van Zyl-Pithey on help for cancer sufferers and their carers

“Cancer: at last it’s good news!” shouted the front page headline of a serious French newspaper the other day. That would certainly have got the attention of the 800,000 people across the country who are currently suffering from the disease, along with that of the countless family members and others who are helping them cope with it. A local GP I spoke to frowned when I mentioned that headline. “Of course, it’s good to get people to understand that a diagnosis of cancer is no longer a death sentence. But cancer comes in many forms and these respond differently to treatment. Again, the evolution of the disease in any particular case is specific and that sort of headline is not really useful. The same goes for media accounts of a lucky outcome as with Lance Armstrong. I don’t want to depress people but I wouldn’t want to tell a patient that he’s sure to be cured of testicular cancer. Maybe, maybe not ... ”

“They need to talk ... ”
So what does he tell his patients? “Well, they’ll often hear from me and the specialist that in many cases the disease can be effectively treated and that we’re making progress all the time. The newspaper report you mention was, I seem to remember, partly about the likely availability in the very near future of a vaccine against uterine cancer. What’s important is that we are more and more able to detect cancers at an early stage and that usually means we can treat them more effectively. At the same time, we’re making very encouraging progress in prevention. The message about smoking, for example, has got through to a lot of people, and that’s really good news.”

But – as the figure quoted earlier makes clear – you have to still say of cancer that there’s a lot of it about. “And that’s why counselling is so important,” says Juliet Young, who has been involved with advising English-speaking cancer sufferers and their carers in this region for nearly twenty years. “The need for help is complex. Those who’ve been diagnosed with cancer need assistance in coming to terms with their physical condition and at the same time in coping with the psychological impact of the diagnosis. Whatever the doctor says, it’s still hard not to be terribly shaken by it. And then there are the carers – family and friends – who can become stressed and exhausted. They need to talk, too.”

Juliet is always ready to respond to those who make contact with her, especially in her home area of the Var. At the other end of the Coast there’s a counselling group based in Monaco. I talked to Lodi van’t Hof who impressed me with her typical Dutch blend of common sense and evident compassion.

“Our group – Cancer Comfort International – started in the Principality but we’re open to anyone who gets in touch who’s reasonably local. We’re an offshoot of a French-speaking group, made up of people – very often former cancer sufferers – who realised that there was a need for special help among foreign patients. Two basic points: we don’t give medical advice and we try to avoid arousing false hopes – your doctor was right about that. We’ve got two functions: firstly, to help people deal with doctors and hospitals in English and all the other practical problems that come up; secondly, we’re there to listen when people need to talk about their situation, and for some that can be a desperate need on occasion. We’re careful to assign two counsellors to each person so there’ll always be someone available.”

“Reassurance through reliable information”
Of course, these days help doesn’t necessarily have to be local. “That’s right,” says Juliet Young. “Above all, the Internet has changed the cancer-counselling task beyond recognition. As well as the telephone, there’s e-mail and people can be continually in touch with a counsellor and with each other. They’ve also got access to a vast range of websites – some excellent, some not – and here, for example, English-speakers can check out the site of the UK BACUP organisation.” And there’s also a developing counselling network in English across France, organised by Linda Shepherd in the Poitou-Charentes. As she explains, “One of the worst things is to be or to feel isolated, alone with your cancer and your fear and uncertainty. We try to bring to anyone in these situations reassurance through reliable information and personalised advice.” On one point, finally, Juliet, Lodi and Linda were all agreed: while the single commonest form of the disease treated in French oncology departments is cancer of the prostate, few men seek counselling. “A pity,” says Juliet Young. “For all of us, it’s good to talk ... ”

CancerBACUP: +44 207 613 3121 / www.cancerbacup.org.uk

Cancer Comfort International (Monaco): +377 93 30 43 61

Linda Shepherd (Cancer counselling): 05 45 28 09 95 / This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it / www.cancersupportfrance.info

Juliet Young (Cancer counselling): 04 94 78 88 20 / This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text75639 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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