Cancer Self-Help Groups

Thousands of new cases of cancer are diagnosed every year in North America. Along with the diagnosis, people often experience feelings of fear and loneliness. Many people with cancer have found support and information from self-help groups for cancer patients and survivors, and have learned how to change the loneliness and fear of their diagnosis into a journey of hope and healing. A measure of the success of cancer self-help groups is their ever-increasing numbers.

Creating and maintaining an effective support group is not always easy. This manual -- written by and for cancer patients, in collaboration with researchers and other experts -- outlines strategies cancer survivors have discovered and the skills they have developed to meet the challenges of forming and working with their own support groups.

Cancer Self-Help Groups: A Guide builds upon the lessons learned from cancer patients who have started groups and participated as group members, and their stories have been included to help illustrate points in the text. The purpose of this manual is to offer encouragement and ideas to:

• people who want to start a cancer self-help group
• people who are members of an established group
• people who are thinking about facilitating a group
• and people who are struggling with problems in cancer groups.

This extraordinarily helpful guide offers a wealth of useful information for those whose lives are affected by cancer. Chapter titles include the following:

• The Self-help Spirit: Connecting as a Way of Healing
• Getting Started
• Organizing Your First Meetings
• Challenges Facing Groups
• Grief, Loss, Bereavement
• Using Humor
• Using the Internet for Information, Support and Advocacy
• Making Connections Beyond the Group

Pat Kelly is president of PISCES -- Partnering in Self-help Community Education and Support, established in 1994 to provide training, education and consulting services to self-help groups. She is the founder and former executive director of The Ontario Breast Cancer Support & Resource Centre (Willow). Kelly has been a keynote speaker at many conferences throughout North America, and is a frequent guest on radio and television programs.