I recently went to a workshop organised at my local hospital, for people who have finished chemotherapy and moving on from treatment. It was very informative and I was surprised only two other patients attended. Both of these ladies had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer so I felt a little bit outnumbered. At the end of the workshop (they kindly provided lunch) I was chatting to one of the other ladies. She agreed with me that the nurses in the chemotherapy unit were brilliant and she had nothing but praise for the way she was treated. She said, though, how upset she had felt when, as she was sitting in the crowded waiting room waiting to see the consultant, a volunteer from the local breast cancer support group had approached her. “Are you Breast?” the volunteer said. “No, I’m Ovarian”, she replied. She said the volunteer promptly turned her back on her and started to talk to a lady who had breast cancer. The breast cancer support group in my area is really active and well-organised, and I have found my chats with the volunteers very reassuring and they’ve been there when I needed them. These ladies have been through breast cancer themselves and want to give something back. I can understand, though, how this situation arose as we Breast ladies were always in the majority at the chemotherapy clinics.
Anyway, the organiser of the workshop said she would suggest a more tactful approach, i.e. ‘I’m from the breast cancer support group, but I can put you in touch with …’, but I felt guilty at being so self-absorbed. This could have happened when I was in the waiting room and I wouldn’t even have noticed how insensitive the volunteer must have sounded. I’m not making any point at all posting this, just wanted to get it off my chest.