Cancer & Serious Illness
Cancer and serious illness not only impacts individual patients, but the impact ripples through the patient’s entire community of family and friends. Our Cancer & Serious Illness Initiative is intended to bring comfort, inspiration, connection and healing to those impacted by cancer or serious illness.
About: Cancer & Serious Illness
This initiative offers a creative, tangible way for providing inspiration and light to loved ones facing the darkness of cancer or other serious medical illness. In just a few hours, under a facilitator’s guidance, one can create a beautiful illuminated paper lamp that serves as a reminder that even amidst darkness, there is always light, hope and healing.
Support Systems
When loved ones struggle with cancer or serious illness, friends and relatives look to provide comfort, hope and love, but struggle with what to say and how to say it. Suddenly thrust into challenging, new roles while trying to navigate a strange and confusing health care landscape, family members and friends also require support.
A TIP lamp making session is a healing respite that provides opportunities for sharing of wisdom and mutual support. It provides an opportunity for family and friends to show tangible support for their loved one facing cancer. Long after the workshop ends, the lamp remains as a comforting beacon that not only carries with it all of the positive and healing symbolism of light, but also the intentions that have been attached to the lamp.
By participating in the Cancer and Serious Illness Initiative, hospitals are actively supporting their patients and their patients’ circle of community, promoting improved psycho-emotional outcomes which can also improve physiological health, while generating tangible goodwill that can improve customer satisfaction and enhance loyalty.
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TIP’s Cancer & Serious Illness Initiative has a broad and powerful scope quite unlike any other psycho-emotional support strategies. How is it different?
While it utilizes art as a key element of its approach, it produces a tangible end-product, the lamp, which can be both powerful and of enduring significance to its recipient.
It targets two distinct, but inter-related groups: not just the patient, but also members of the patient’s community, who make the lamps and participate in the process surrounding the lamp making.
It combines art, discussion and wisdom sharing while fostering connections between the participants.
Light is not just a powerful agent of healing in many cultures and traditions, but also a powerful symbol with many meanings: Warmth, clarity, illumination, understanding, love, healing, hope and inspiration.
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In 2023, almost 2 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 600,000 people will die from the disease. Historically, the perspective of the medical community has focused on cancer as a disease and its main objective has been curing and eradicating cancer. That’s a laudable objective, but in the meantime, there are millions of people affected by the cancer journey — and their immediate need is healing as much as curing. We may not be able to cure cancer and other serious illnesses in the foreseeable future, but in the meantime we can help our patients heal, we can ease their suffering, we can provide comfort and inspiration.
Studies show that the psycho-emotional component of cancer and serious illness must be a part of the therapeutic approach. Moreover, the impact of cancer has been compared to dropping a stone in a pond with ripples that spread and impact a wide circle of individuals beyond the individual affected patient, changing the community’s identity and daily routines. One example of this ripple effect: the rates of depression and sleep disturbance are surprisingly similar between cancer patients and their caregivers. It’s significant that 20-30% of families are at risk for long-term problems and 21% of relatives of cancer are at risk for depression.
Further, studies also show that supportive therapies including art, discussion and wisdom sharing have clear benefits – reducing anxiety and depressions, easing suffering and improving emotional health — not just for patients but for their caregivers, whether they are family or friends.
Footnotes:
1 (Cancer Statistics, National Cancer Institute website)
2 (Blanchard CG. The Crisis of cancer: Psychological impact on family caregivers. ONCOLOGY 11(2):189-194, 1997).
3 (Bishop MM, et al. Late effects of cancer and hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation on spouses or partners compared with survivors and survivor-matched controls. J Clin Oncol. 2007 Apr 10;25(11):1403-11)
4 (Edwards B., Clarke V. The psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis on families: the influence of family functioning and patients’ illness characteristics on depression and anxiety. Psychooncology. 2004 Aug;13(8):562-76.)
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“Cancer can be so isolating. People don’t know what to say or do. I was craving connection. Every time I look at this lamp, I feel the connection of those who love me. I read the message attached to my lamp and I feel inspired….it gives me strength to get up and face another day.” – from a lamp recipient
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“When a friend or family member is diagnosed with cancer, it’s hard to find the right words to say or the right things to do. And if we don’t know what to say, sometimes we don’t say anything and that can be the most hurtful thing of all.” – from a patient with cancer
”I thought I’d be making a gift to give to my dear friend, but I was struck by what a powerful gift the lamp making process was to myself. I had been frustrated and anxious because I wanted to show my friend that I loved and cared for her and that she could count on me no matter where her journey took her, but how could I show her that? Making this lamp was a powerful message to her….and it’s tangible and lasting. Every time my friend looks at this lamp, it reminds her that she is loved and I am there for her. And you know what, that makes me feel better also!” –TIP Cancer & Serious Illness Participant
“A wound is the place where the light enters you.”
