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Nurse lectures on living with cancer

For people whose lives have been touched by cancer, a Cancer Answer Line resource nurse, Rita Petrovskis, lectured on "Coping With Cancer" yesterday as part of Cancer Awareness Week.

"You should never be afraid to let your loved ones know you care about them -- even if you are not quite sure what to say," Petrovskis said.

The lecture focused on how cancer patients handle living with the disease, and how friends and family members can help them.

"A cancer diagnosis brings out a wide range of feelings," Petrovskis said. "It helps to understand them so you can better understand people with cancer and what they are going through."

Petrovskis said many cancer patients experience shock, denial, anger, guilt, shame, anxiety and depression when they are diagnosed.

These feelings must be addressed by loved ones, Petrovskis said.

"Everyone who undergoes a cancer diagnosis has basic needs that need to be fulfilled," she said.

Often, in addition to health concerns, people with cancer have transportation, family care and financial issues that arise, Petrovskis said.

"Recently, at the Cancer Answer Line, people have told me that they need the best treatment available because they need to take care of elderly parents or kids," Petrovskis said.

Maintaining relationships with others often becomes more challenging when one is diagnosed with cancer, she said.

"Dealing with family members is not as easy as it may appear from the outside," Petrovskis said.

Events coordinator for Students Against Cancer Shera Gittleman asked Petrovskis to present this lecture as part of Cancer Awareness Week.

"We tried to think of things that might be relevant for university students," Gittleman said.

Providing support for cancer patients and their families are main goals of Students Against Cancer, Gittleman said.

Of the nine people who attended the lecture, most had been affected by cancer in one way or another.

"I have Hodgkins' Disease, which is cancer of the lymph nodes, and I feel the need to start talking about my own personal experience with cancer -- it is time to express that," said Art senior Monique Piegdon. "I came here to get more information."

"My stepmother might have cancer and I thought I would come and find out more about it in case it is cancer," said LSA junior Christian Maloof. "The information presented might enable me to offer some support and comfort to her."