#GivingTuesday - Give Those Affected by Cancer a Shoulder to Lean On

This has been an exceptionally difficult year for everyone, but especially cancer patients and loved ones.

Facing a cancer diagnosis is daunting, many cancer patients feeling alone, as they don’t feel that those around them truly understand what they are going through.

On top of this COVID-19 restrictions have added intensity to this feeling of isolation. Patients have felt frustrated and despondent as they struggled to access vital support services during the pandemic. Their low immunity and high risk of infection for COVID-19, has also resulted in anxiety.

Cancer patients are not the only ones who have been having a rough year. Cancer affects the entire family whether it’s learning to put on the hat of a caregiver, supporting a family member through treatment and side effects, or when they are terminally ill, as well as dealing with the financial burden of treatment, or grief and loss.

Patients and loved ones alike needed someone to reach out to…

So CANSA decided to do something – to provide the proverbial shoulder for those affected to lean on, and launched its CANSA Tele Counselling service on Mandela Day this year.

The service is confidential and professional, providing cancer-related telephonic counselling to cancer patients, caregivers, family members and the parents or guardians of children living with cancer. To ensure that as many people as possible may benefit from the service, it is available in 7 languages and is free of charge.

And what a success it has been…

By the end of November this year our 8 Tele Counsellors had assisted 75 clients over 222 counselling sessions.

We’ve helped with bereavement counselling; support when a family member is terminally ill; newly diagnosed patients needing information and support; patients struggling to cope with treatment or adapt to life challenges after treatment and family who are battling to cope with a loved one’s diagnosis and side effects of treatment.

One of our clients had this to say about his counselling experience:

“It was extremely helpful and I would have not been able to process my grief without it. I found my counsellor to be a very focused listener, engaging with subtlety and an open mind that I have rarely experienced. Very competent in understanding my case and allowing me to feel free to share my story and feel understood on my path. Kindness and compassion, but also guidance and straightforwardness that brought to my sessions a balance that created a space of trust where I could speak openly without ever feeling any judgment and always feeling supported! It was for me a deeply healing process and experience.”

We hope to help many more people in need into the future. Won’t you help support this valuable service by making an online donation here. Your support will ensure that our counsellors continue to receive in-service training to make them even more competent, and that we can continue to offer this service free of charge.

If you’d like to get in touch with a CANSA Tele Counsellor you can book an appointment via our Toll Free line 0800 22 66 22 or email counselling@cansa.org.za