Partner with CANSA to Help Relieve the Burden of a Cancer Diagnosis
As I sit writing to you, it saddens me to know there are people everywhere hearing the words that can take a person’s breath away – “you have cancer.”
CANSA views the newly diagnosed, as more than just cancer patients, but as Survivors. They needn’t feel alone, as we are holding out our hands to them in support and encouragement through our CANSA Care Centre staff, across the country.
Lucinda Carter explains how she felt when she was told she had stage two cervical cancer: “I suddenly felt dizzy. I couldn’t follow what my doctor was saying. The only thing I remembered was the time on the clock on the wall – 11:24.”
“I was 39; I had four children, the youngest only two years old at the time. Once I got over the shock, all I could think of was how I was going to survive. I was so afraid I wouldn’t live to see my beloved family grow up.”
Lucinda’s experience is not isolated. Cervical cancer is the second most common women’s cancer diagnosed in SA.
This is why we’re here, to help lessen the huge burden on cancer Survivors in every way, and it’s your support and online donations that help to make it happen.
Lucinda was lucky – her doctor referred her to CANSA. He knew she’d need support during her cancer journey and a place to stay, while she was being treated.
“I stayed at CANSA Mkhuhla Care Home in Durban – they treated me like royalty. I don’t know what I would have done without CANSA. Can you imagine having to travel 320 km every day, for six weeks, to have radiotherapy? I was too weak. I couldn’t have done it, never mind the cost!
Lucinda’s fine now – her cancer hasn’t come back, thank goodness! And she so appreciated the support that friends like you – and CANSA gave her – that when she saw there was a job at CANSA’s head office, she applied immediately.
Her experiences and her compassion give her a special talent for helping cancer patients who come to us feeling bewildered and scared.
“A good support system helps people who have cancer, and their loved ones, giving them the strength and motivation to fight the disease,” Lucinda affirms.
There are more than 30 CANSA Care Centres in South Africa, where people like you, help us to provide holistic care and support, from the time of diagnosis, through all phases of need.
Without your support and online donations, we couldn’t offer these services to newly diagnosed Survivors or their loved ones.
Please will you help ensure that those who will hear the words “you have cancer” in the future, will receive the information, emotional and practical support they deserve, to cope with their cancer diagnosis, and fight it with the added resolve that stems from being nurtured and supported – make your online donation and help us relieve the burden of a cancer diagnosis.
Thanking you kindly in advance, Elize Joubert (CANSA CEO)