A secondary school in Milford has come up with a unique study project looking at the lives of cancer patients after their treatment.
“Our Answer After Cancer” focuses on the effects cancer has on patients after treatment such as physical, psychological and financial issues survivors go through and the lack of awareness of the aftermath of cancer.
The project is being undertaken by TY students at Mulroy College who have adopted the slogan “Cancer is part of a journey, not a destination.”
In this specially-written article, student Lauren McGinley outlines their work.
Our project is aimed at survivors of cancer and to others either directly or indirectly affected.
We are a group of 15 Transition Year students from Mulroy College, Milford. This topic was chosen for the reason that we are all affected by cancer, whether it is family, friends or perhaps someone we know in our local community that has been diagnosed with cancer.
After treatment survivors may feel vulnerable or silenced, with the constant fear of their cancer coming back and it can be extremely difficult for life to go back to the way it was before diagnosis.
Many survivors may feel extremely isolated and be short of information of where they can go to to seek help with matters such as both physical and mental health issues, relationship counselling and in some cases help with addictions such as drugs or alcohol.
More than 165,000 people in Ireland are living with and beyond cancer today. 5,500 of these people are in Donegal alone.
Our project is to be entered into Young Social Innovators, Ireland’s largest social awareness and active citizenship and education programme for 15- to 18-year-old teens. Working in teams, young social innovators are challenged to identify a social issue affecting them, their communities or wider society and to come up with and bring about creative solutions.
Our aim is to bring awareness to this issue and offer help to those affected by cancer aftermath. This includes the cancer survivors themselves and their loved ones who have supported them throughout their fight against cancer.
Change is what we are aiming for in our project. We are determined to make this change in our community, to raise awareness not only on the aftermath of cancer but also of the lack of services available to survivors.
Hopefully through our hard work and determination to bring about change to our aforementioned social issue, more services will be provided in the future for survivors of cancer and its devastating impact on their lives.
To implement this change we intend to spread awareness of our cause through social media accounts which we hope will be received by a much greater audience.
To a vast amount of people, we can explain our social issue, the change we wish to make, how we’re going to do this and how people can get involved. We have already participated in the Relay for Life Cancer Conference in the Mount Errigal hotel and presented our project to its audience.
We greatly appreciate all the help and support that has been offered to us by Robert O’Connor chairperson of Relay for life Letterkenny. Our Facebook page is called “Our Answer After Cancer”. All support would be greatly appreciated. Our Facebook swap group is also called “Our Answer After Cancer”, a safe place where cancer survivors can offer support to one another and answer any inquiries they may have.
We want to help these individuals by giving support after the life-changing experience they have gone through. Our goal is to create awareness and support for the survivors of cancer and their families. Cancer is an illness that can leave a trail of destruction after it has physically left the individual. We want to do this in the form of a care-package.
Some of the things we will include in the package are:
– Diet plans
– Discounts for hotel, leisure and spas
– Beauty advice & discounts (hair/wigs, eyebrows)
– Discounted gym membership
– Social media groups/forums to easily contact other survivors
If you want to get in touch or know of anyone who can help us with our project please contact us through any of the following contact details
Facebook: “Our Answer After Cancer”
Email: ysi.our.answer@gmail.com
