After the treatment finishes then what? (Dr Peter Harvey)
09 Survivor - what’s in a name?
So who is a survivor? This is a controversial area and there is no real agreement as to who fits this description. In the US, where the survivorship movement has been developing since 1985, it has been suggested that survivorship begins at diagnosis.
Not everyone agrees with this and one of the reasons that this site hasn’t used the words survivor or survivorship is because this is such a problematic area. And the names we use matter.
Using such a term universally may not be to everyone’s liking. From the moment you are diagnosed your rôle and position in your world changes. You start out as an ordinary person going about your business as usual. Once you go to see a doctor and become a patient then certain things change - the roles of ‘doctor’ and ‘patient’ give people permission to act in different (and socially approved ways) that are not acceptable in more everyday circumstances.
Just imagine a friend or neighbour asking you some to the questions that your doctor or nurse may ask - or them doing some of the things to you that you allow a doctor or nurse to do to you. So becoming a patient changes how people behave towards you and how you may feel about yourself.
If we now move on a stage and you are diagnosed with cancer, you become a cancer patient. This again changes things and you move into a different category of patient - perhaps people will react to you in a new - and not always helpful - way.
You may even get tagged with the label ‘cancer victim’, a term much used by the tabloid press to refer to celebrities with cancer. This is an awful term, implying as it does passivity and helplessness. Another result of media interest is becoming a cancer hero - someone who battles against all the odds and does truly heroic physical feats despite their diagnosis.
These labels are often thrust unwillingly upon an individual who is put in a difficult situation where they may be trying their best to deal with their cancer without the added pressure of the glare of publicity. It can become an enormous burden on the individual, their family - and on other patients all of whom feel that they must live up to this standard but for good reasons are not able to.
The last of these labels is cancer survivor - someone who has successfully overcome the hurdles of treatment. But this is not without its problems. Look at the list below:
- Ordinary person
- Patient
- Cancer patient
- Cancer victim
- Cancer hero
- Cancer survivor
Two observations - first, where is the person in all this?
All the labels are roles, not individuals. Second, cancer always come first. If we talk about people with cancer then we don’t put the cancer first and, when we take the cancer away, we are left with a person. And this matters.
There is a common conflict once treatment has finished summed up by a women who was struggling with how she wanted people to respond to her. She - understandably - wanted some acknowledgement and respectful sympathy from friends for what she had been through. But she also didn’t always want to be known as ‘that women who had cancer’.
Often people wish to simply to acknowledge that the cancer was part of their life but is now now longer a central issue. Yes, they have had cancer but it can, hopefully, be relegated to a less central position.
The Cancer Counselling Trust has now closed.
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