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"Fighter", "warrior", "hero", "brave", "survivor"
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TOPIC: "Fighter", "warrior", "hero", "brave", "survivor"
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"Fighter", "warrior", "hero", "brave", "survivor" 5 Years, 2 Months ago
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Cancer cliches to avoid: I'm not 'brave'
Fighter, warrior, hero - some of the terms you might see used to describe people with cancer.
But according to a new survey, for some with the illness the words are seen as inappropriate rather than uplifting.
The UK poll by Macmillan Cancer Support of 2,000 people who have or had cancer found "cancer-stricken" and "victim" were also among the least-liked terms.
The charity said it showed how "divisive" simple descriptions of cancer can be.
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Mandy Mahoney, 47, has incurable metastatic breast cancer.
The outreach support worker, from London, was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and it has since returned five times.
She said: "I think cancer-speak can be quite negatively loaded - the brave, fighter, warrior and survivor standard descriptors put an awful lot of pressure on the newly diagnosed."
Mandy said she also objected to describing people as "losing their battle" with cancer.
"That confers that you didn't fight or gave up," she said.
Instead, she prefers "clear, factual language" and describes herself simply as "living with incurable cancer".
I wonder what the results would be if a similar survey were done for people who had experienced abuse.
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Re: 5 Years, 2 Months ago
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Jo wrote:
Cancer cliches to avoid: I'm not 'brave'
Fighter, warrior, hero - some of the terms you might see used to describe people with cancer.
But according to a new survey, for some with the illness the words are seen as inappropriate rather than uplifting.
The UK poll by Macmillan Cancer Support of 2,000 people who have or had cancer found "cancer-stricken" and "victim" were also among the least-liked terms.
The charity said it showed how "divisive" simple descriptions of cancer can be.
...
Mandy Mahoney, 47, has incurable metastatic breast cancer.
The outreach support worker, from London, was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and it has since returned five times.
She said: "I think cancer-speak can be quite negatively loaded - the brave, fighter, warrior and survivor standard descriptors put an awful lot of pressure on the newly diagnosed."
Mandy said she also objected to describing people as "losing their battle" with cancer.
"That confers that you didn't fight or gave up," she said.
Instead, she prefers "clear, factual language" and describes herself simply as "living with incurable cancer".
I wonder what the results would be if a similar survey were done for people who had experienced abuse.
From the thread title, that is what I expected it to be about.
People ask "why would they lie", but what vulnerable person wouldn't want to be thought of as brave, a survivor, and a hero.
In relation to cancer, I find it offensive too. The truth is that we get it at random and sometimes it kills us.
I suppose for some, it makes them feel more in control if they think of it as a fight?
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