A Cancer Support Group Prolonged a Friend's Life

I will never forget the look in my friend Susan's eyes when she came in and told me she found out that she had stomach cancer and it was terminal. I had never seen such sadness in her eyes in my life, and I wanted to cry, too. I knew, however, that she needed me to be strong and positive, and I told her that only God knows whether or not her cancer was terminal and that I had recently heard about a cancer support group that was supposed to be great. One evening, we decided to make a trip to the place where the group met and sit in on one of the meetings.

She could hardly get out of bed for two days when she first received the news, but I refused to let her feel sorry for herself. She finally came around and said that she did not want to spend what remaining time she had left in bed, but wanted to do something with the rest of her life. We went to the cancer support group and started listening in on some of the stories people had to tell. It was amazing for us to hear some of them, and even more amazing to see Susan's reaction.

We heard from people who were diagnosed with incurable cancer more than a decade ago and are still alive. They talked about how when they first found out, they lived in constant fear that something bad was going to happen. After a while, however, they got tired of living their lives that way and started living as if they were completely healthy. They, too, had discovered the cancer support group and said just being able to meet other patients, talk about it and get things off of their chests helped them so much.

Susan finally opened up a little bit and started talking about her diagnosis, and was quite relieved to see everyone really do their best to comfort her. Many of them reiterated what I had told her originally, in that there is no guarantee that she would be dead within the next six months as she had originally been told. The cancer support group members took extra time with Susan and provided her with great peace of mind during the meeting, and when it was done, I told her that I would go with her any time that she wanted to go. She said she wanted to go every week.

I wish that I could say that Susan lived for a good long time after her original diagnosis and then died a relatively peaceful death, but that was not the case. You see, Susan is still alive, 10 years after her original diagnosis, and has been told at each office visit for a decade now that the cancer has not progressed. She lives life to the fullest, and I suspect she will for a very long time!