Addressing quality of life for people with cancer and their families

The purpose of this project was to produce mindful affirmation cards for individuals and family members experiencing cancer. Cards were designed from affirmations individuals who have or have had cancer have relayed were helpful and supportive for them to hear from others. This allows individuals to get support from these affirmations knowing other people with similar lived experience have said. They can be used as appropriate for individuals.

This project addresses wellbeing supports for those with cancer care and or treatment and what they have self-identified as a need for support and how to provide the support. This is a wellbeing initiative to support cancer incidence and healthy life years through Healthy Ireland outcomes framework. It addresses the quality of life determinant – overall life satisfaction, health, leisure and social interactions.

Research origins of the initiative

The idea for this project came from the work of Dr Marie Walsh. For her doctoral research in 2020, she studied how Irish female cancer survivors experience Post Traumatic Growth (PTG). One of the questions she asked each of the 67 women was ‘What is the best advice you would give someone if they were diagnosed with cancer?’. The participants shared fabulous pieces of wisdom about what helped them recover. The project capitalised on this existing research and regenerated the research to ascertain its continued relevance to cancer survivors and those currently experiencing cancer care and treatment. It involved Cancer C.A.R.E Clonmel and Circle of Friends Cancer Support Services where the original research was carried out with students of Digital Media designing the art work and TUS supporting the researcher to extend her time to the research.

Co Design with Sláintecare Healthy Communities, Academia and local support groups

In 2023 the Slaintecare Healthy Communities Local Development Officer for Clonmel agreed to fund the project as part of the Sláintecare Healthy Communities programme. Marie met with groups from CARE Clonmel and Circle of Friends in Tipperary Town to share over 100 quotes/words of wisdom from the research. They were asked to choose the ones that meant the most to them and to add new ones.  Eddie Evergreen and David Power (TUS Clonmel students) took on the task of illustrating the quotes guided by TUS Lecturer and visual artist Craig Mullins.

This initiative provides informal support to individuals who have cancer. Many individuals who have cancer have many different home lives. Some individuals have more or less support than others. Some individuals are open and outgoing and some individuals are more private. Individuals have different socio-economic backgrounds and often these items are an unaffordable expense. These cards offer an informal support through affirmations from others who have a shared life experience and they can offer some peer support indirectly. They may be used in group mindfulness sessions or individually, it is open ended.

Success in delivering Help and support in the Clonmel SHC area

In Ireland, someone is diagnosed with cancer every 10 minutes. With early detection and better treatment, the good news is that more and more people can and in fact do recover and go on to live full lives. For many, an important part of their recovery is the help and support they receive from Cancer Support Centre’s and other Cancer Survivors.

The launch of positive reflection cards for Cancer Survivors took place at Clonmel Aftercare Relaxation and Education (CARE) on Thursday July 20^th  2024. This beautiful deck of 32 cards is designed especially for survivors and their families, each card with a piece of wisdom, a quote from someone who has been there to help them in their recovery. Some of them speak of the importance of relationships –I think positively and surround myself with positive people.  Others highlight the importance of living in the moment – I walk the mountain and appreciate the trees, now I even hug them. You can pick a card as a thought for the day or the week.

Positive feedback from all involved

“We are here to support people who are affected by cancer, those who have been diagnosed with cancer or their wider circle of family, carers and friends. I have looked through the cards and I can say that every single one of them is relevant to people in many different ways. I say to everybody here well done and thank you for what you have done in getting these cards developed” (Chairperson Cancer Support Centre)

“I really wanted to delve into what helps people recover. That was a really important question and particularly what helps Irish people recover. I worked with 67 cancer survivors including people from Circle of Friends and I toured all over Munster finding people and asking them ‘what’s your story’, ‘what helped’ and the very last question was if you meet someone that is recently diagnosed what is the best advice you can give them with all of the research I wondered as to what you do with it and an idea came forward about something that you could pick up and put down and perhaps come back to again. So the card idea came about as something that could be used as a thought for the day or a thought for the week. You may have a question and you ask that question and see if the card can help. Jump forward to 2023 and a lovely group of people came together here at Circle of Friends & Cancer Care Clonmel and basically what we did was we plastered the room with 100 different quotes from the research and asked participants to pick the one that resonated with them or if they didn’t see one, to choose one for themselves. That helped to narrow it down to what was most meaningful to people and there were further sessions with people in Cancer Care Clonmel,” (Dr Marie Walsh TUS Clonmel)

“When we were upstairs and all the inspirations were on the wall, you saw everybody’s story. Some had a paragraph, some had three lines, some had one line and just the uniqueness of each person on their journey and it was very touching to me.” (Cancer Survivor participant)

“I just want to say how proud I am to be involved in this project. To think that all those little slips of paper on the wall turned into this. We enjoyed it so much and one word stood out for me and that was ‘breathe’. We all need to breathe in life and it’s a very important word in any journey.” (Cancer Survivor participant)

For further information

If you would like to know more about the or other Sláintecare Healthy Communities initiatives in Tipperary you can contact the Local Development Officer Catriona Crowe .