The
Emotional Cancer Journey
& Health Promotion
The subject
of cancer is a major health issue for everyone - people with cancer,
family and friends as well as health professionals involved in education,
early detection, treatment and care. However the experience of cancer
is more than diagnosis and treatment as it affects us in our totality,
physically, psychologically and emotionally. It becomes both a part
and a fact of every aspect of our life.
The way we deal with the cancer experience varies enormously. We can
choose to deny that it is happening to us, we can live in fear of it,
adopt a fatalistic attitude or gather information and learn as much
as we can about the effects and treatment, becoming sufficiently informed
to make sense of the options available to us, in order to make decisions.
Whichever coping strategy we use there may be difficulties, misunderstandings
and communication barriers.
Cancer although widely experienced, remains marginalised and hidden
and insufficiently discussed and shared. This is partly due to the difficulty
in finding words which describe our feelings in relation to something
as big as cancer. Overcoming these communication gaps is an important
aspect of health education and health promotion. Identifying images,
finding appropriate words to discuss, explain and explore people’s
attitudes, knowledge and behaviour is what health promotion is all about.
Looking, reading and listening to these images and words of Michele
Angelo Petrone is a most educative experience.
The importance of the pictures and the imperative to get these pictures
to the people of East Sussex, Brighton and Hove was reinforced through
sharing them with our colleague Health Promotion Adviser, Jennie Oakes
who had breast cancer. The paintings brought both relief and comfort
to her as Michele was painting what Jennie had been trying to put into
words.
These pictures and words by Michele Angelo Petrone, which we are very
fortunate to have are very important to everyone with a cancer experience.
Many thanks to Michele for giving us an opportunity to create a dialogue
with those we serve and care for, with his powerful, hopeful and beautiful
images.
Margaret Felton
Senior Health Promotion Advisor
Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust