Living with the Long-Term Effects of Cancer by Cordelia Galgut

Author:Cordelia Galgut
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784508395
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2019-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

People assume you want to give up work after diagnosis

It is certainly my experience, and that of others I know, that people tend to think that a colossal confrontation with mortality, such as accompanies cancer, will always mean that those of us so affected will want to give up work, run marathons, bungee jump or holiday in far-flung places all the time. Nothing could be further from the truth for many of us, contrary to this conventional wisdom on the subject. On the contrary, large numbers of us want to be as normal as possible. Cancer pulls the complacent ‘I’ll live for a while yet’ rug out from under your feet to such an extent that all many of us want is to get some semblance of normality back as soon as possible, not scale down the side of a cliff face, much as we know that life will never look or be the same again. It is therefore no surprise to me that a Macmillan Cancer Support survey (2016) reported that 85 per cent of its respondents wanted to stay at work after diagnosis. Reasons for wanting and needing to stay in work were: 60 per cent because they wanted to maintain normality and 54 per cent for financial reasons; 45 per cent cited enjoying their job as a reason.

Even when people are dying, it is not uncommon for them to want to continue working for as long as they can, which is a total anathema to many. As Barbara Wilson said in an interview she did for Harley Street Concierge (Working with Cancer 2017):

Before I had cancer, I remember asking a terminally ill employee why she still wanted to work. And she worked until a fortnight before her death. The simple answer is that it’s about feeling normal. Using your brain. Being with colleagues and friends, rather than on your own. There are also financial reasons. But typically – and I can say this based on my own experience – it’s about being ‘you’ again, rather than a cancer patient.

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