People telling you to “keep fighting” when you’re feeling weak or having a low day makes you feel as though you’re doing something wrong or even worse, being cowardly.’Ĭhris questions whether ‘battling’ is an accurate term for everyone’s experience of cancer. ‘I think it’s human nature to want to have control over things like illness, but all these words just pile on the pressure for people with cancer.
‘Celebrities and newspapers seem especially keen on these words, as though individuals somehow have an ability or a strong character trait which can go above and beyond what the surgery chemotherapy radiotherapy and medicines do. ‘Haven’t you been brave enough or fought hard enough? ‘What does it mean if you lose the battle?’ she says. Ines believes that words like battling are best left to descriptions of war, not illness.
Newspaper headlines often talk in these terms when describing a famous person diagnosed with cancer. Sometimes when someone dies as a result of cancer, they’re described as having lost their battle. People with cancer are frequently described as fighting a battle with their illness. We asked some Vita readers which words they do and don’t like using. Some people find certain words motivating, while others find them upsetting.
Words that are often used to describe cancer such as ‘battling’ or ‘survivor’ can divide opinion among people who’ve been diagnosed with it.
0 kommentar(er)
