A Downpatrick woman who was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma at 20 is backing a new campaign raising awareness of insensitive things people say to cancer patients.
Amy Curran, now 23, is supporting Teenage Cancer Trust's 'what not to say' campaign by sharing the most uncomfortable and bizarre comments made to her during cancer treatment.
From comments like "Can I try on your wig?" to "My dog died of cancer" and outlandish speculation that somebody’s cancer was caused by eating chocolate spread, the aim is to make people think before they speak and cause avoid unnecessary upset.
Amy said remarks about her hair loss during treatment were personally upsetting.
"For most people going though treatment losing hair is an extremely distressing side effect. I have even experienced people saying, ’Take your wig off and let us see what length your real hair is," she recalled.
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Amy has also shared how the ‘fighting talk’ around cancer can be difficult to deal with.
"Another thing I found unhelpful was people saying, ‘You’re such a hero/warrior!’ or referring to cancer as a 'battle/fight'," she said. I understand this is usually coming from a good place and people are only respecting how much difficulty you have faced, but I think that most people with cancer don’t want to be hailed as heroes as we are not doing this voluntarily, we have no option!”
Teenage Cancer Trust recommends five things not to say to someone with cancer:
- Don’t talk about your relatives or pets that died of cancer;
- Dont's speculate about why we got cancer;
- Don't talk about our wigs or how our appearance has changed;
- Don't tell us we’re brave;
- Don''t say nothing at all.
