At CancerCare, we believe that the more a person understands about his or her diagnosis—such as learning new terminology and aspects of treatment—the better he or she will be able to communicate with their health care team. Feelings are also important. Understanding and respecting one's emotions, and perhaps being able to share them with other people with lung cancer, can help a person get through treatment and improve the quality of life.
"Being diagnosed with lung cancer pushes both patients and those who care for them into a strange and sometimes frightening new environment, and they really don't know what to do to get some control over a very difficult change in their lives," observes Win Boerckel, CancerCare's National Lung Cancer Program Coordinator. "Our staff of professionally trained oncology social workers are here to assist them in navigating their diagnosis and treatment with answers, advice and, always, continuing support."
All CancerCare programs—including professional counseling, education, financial assistance and practical help—are provided by trained oncology social workers and are completely free of charge. Our free services include:
- Counseling — By a staff of more than 60 professional oncology social workers in various settings -- one-on-one, face-to-face, or over the telephone counseling; in-person and online support groups; and family counseling through our CancerCare for Kids program to help people with lung cancer and their loved ones cope with the emotional and practical challenges of a lung cancer diagnosis.
- Education — Booklets and factsheets on a variety of cancer-related topics, Connect® Education Workshops and resources, all available at our websites, www.lungcancer.org and www.cancercare.org.
- Financial Support — To those who qualify, to help with costs associated with treatment, such as transportation, side effects medications, and child care.
CancerCare Lung Cancer Program Activities in 2009
In the 2009, CancerCare assisted more than 6,200 lung cancer patients, or those who care for them, through individual counseling, group counseling, resource referrals, educational programs and financial assistance grants.
Nearly $156,000.00 was distributed to 2,420 lung cancer patients in financial assistance grants to help defray the costs of transportation, home assistance and child care assistance during treatment.
In July, the Long Island Office will celebrate the 13th anniversary of its continuous, weekly face to face Lung Cancer Patient Support Group. CancerCare offered similar groups for lung cancer patient in both telephone and online formats throughout the year, across the nation.
November 1, 2009 witnessed the two year anniversary of the relaunch of CancerCare’s popular website www.lungcancer.org. This site, which drew more than 312,000 thousand hits in 2009, presents a user-friendly image, as a “first stop" for those who find themselves facing all of the practical and psychosocial issues which a diagnosis of lung cancer brings into their lives. CancerCare embedded a page from EmergingMed.com on this site which allows people seeking information and access to lung cancer clinical trials to get direct access to the patient friendly resources offered by EmergingMed.
Over the course of 2009, CancerCare reached more than 5,600 people through three important Connect Education Workshops, Updates and Treatment Decisions About Lung Cancer, Progress in the Treatment of Lung Cancer: Report From the 2008 ASCO Conference and Caring for Your Bones When You Have Lung Cancer. Archived replays of each conference can be replayed or downloaded to an MP3 player from www.cancercare.org.
Also during 2009, CancerCare shipped out over 33,000 pieces of its popular CancerCare Connect booklets and fact sheets with titles such as, Caring for Your Bones When You Have Lung Cancer, Progress in the Treatment of Lung Cancer and Cancer pulmonar: Sus opciones en tratamiento.
In August 2009, National Lung Cancer Program Coordinator, Win Boerckel, facilitated a meeting of representatives of the newly created LungCAN organization in San Francisco, in which the members worked on the structure and policy for this organization.
CancerCare also completed two research studies which analyzed how the Media covers Lung Cancer vs. its coverage of Breast, Colorectal and Prostate Cancers, in both the USA and the UK. Win Boerckel presented a poster on the UK survey at the IASLC Congress in San Francisco in August.
In November 2009, Win Boerckel was presented with the Lung Cancer Alliance Lung Cancer Support Group Award for “uncommon dedication to helping those affected by lung cancer.”