The Cancer Sharing Circle, CBC News, and community support

I was interviewed by Mackenzie Scott for CBC North as a participant in our local Cancer Sharing Circle that has met a couple of times this fall here in Inuvik. It aired on radio this afternoon and will available in digital form on the weekend.

Taking part in the Sharing Circle enables me to share parts of my story that give other cancer sufferers hope. Hope is a big thing in cancer recovery. As I have mentioned before, belief in recovery brings hope.

Our Sharing Circle here in Inuvik is for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, relatives of cancer patients/survivors and anyone interested in cancer recovery. Participation certainly takes away the common feeling of loneliness and isolation for a person with cancer. And I suppose it is easier to make a Sharing Circle successful in a small community where it is a common thing for people to come together to help one another.

Fear is another common emotion as well as feelings of loneliness. And fear, being a negative emotion, can encourage cancer growth instead of combat it. So it is important to change fear into faith for cancer acceptance and recovery.

I have discovered an advantage of living in a small isolated community. And that is that people truly care about you. The news travels fast when a person is ill. I have been approached by many elders in the community, expressing how happy they are when they heard I was in remission from my kidney cancer. And I am on a first name basis with everyone in the local pharmacy and drug store, including the pharmacist and all the pharmacist helpers.

Speaking of support for cancer patients and survivors, young women face special problems. They are just entering the age of marriage and parenthood. See www.survivher.ca for information on the Surviv(her) movement. I have bought the book entitled Surviv(her) and the stories of young survivors is truly inspiring. All of the sales $ for books and other items go directly to women't cancer research. The author of the book and the website is Dr Amy Morris, a cancer pharmacist in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. If you google her name you will see many news stories about this inspiring young cancer survivor.