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Making cancer voices heard
Debjani Chatterjee, a breast cancer survivor and carer, explains why she ‘woke up’ and decided to make her voice heard.
IBC
I caught IBC
as easy as ABC,
but don’t know from where.
I am a poet but wrote little during my active treatment in 2007 and 2008. Apart from feeling ill and exhausted, it was also as though my writing self had been shocked into numbness. I wrote this haiku at the end of my active treatment. It expresses my bewilderment - and no doubt that of many others - when I was first given my diagnosis. But it was not just a case of not knowing where IBC (Inflammatory Breast Cancer) came from. I didn’t understand why I had got it. After all, wasn’t I a very healthy person who ate all the right things, drank only a glass of red wine on special occasions, never smoked and even nagged my husband to give up smoking soon after our marriage? I also led an active and industrious life. Wasn’t I a good person who was caring for others and didn’t deserve to be ‘punished’ with illness? Does anyone deserve to be ill? There were many more questions. I realised that I had taken my good health for granted and was woefully ignorant about cancer. I had never heard of IBC and did not even know that there were different types of Breast Cancer. I had much to learn.
Debjani with her husband Brian
My experiences at the various Sheffield hospitals that I attended - and still attend - has been mixed. Some aspects of treatment and certain professionals are very good indeed, but sadly it is a patchy picture and too often one finds that health professionals do not view the patient and the carer as part of their team. I believe that the cancer patient/survivor should be the most important member of the team and that carers too need to be valued for the considerable contribution that they make. My own experience has made me want to do my bit to help improve the lot of cancer patients by influencing our cancer services to change for the better. I believe it is important for cancer survivors to tell their stories and help to spread awareness.
As a writer, I am well aware of the therapeutic value and importance generally of creative activities in all our lives. During active treatment I sorely missed being able to write or to engage with any of the arts in a ‘hands-on’ way. Various side effects mean that I have had to adapt my writing habits; for instance, my fingers don’t write well any more and so I now depend much more on my computer, but I am thankful that at least I can write again.
© Radiotherapy: a ghazal by Debjani Chatterjee
(For Drs I H Manifold & A C Perera of Weston Park Cancer Hospital)Even in these wolf-sharp days your beauty fells me,
Surya; it sears like saffron lava on my chest.Steer your sky-chariot, wild cloud-horses rampant,
Straining the years like saffron lava on my chest.Golden god, I would feel your fiery fingertips,
Though they thrust spears like saffron lava on my chest.My eyes plead for your passionate arms to lift me -
Your clasp that cheers like saffron lava on my chest.My heart aches to salute but my arms disobey,
So take these tears like saffron lava on my chest.Surya, may your balmy healer’s face shine on me
And melt my fears like saffron lava on my chest.(Note: Surya is the Hindu Sun-god who is also a Healer. Surya Namaskar or Sun-Salutation is popular in Hatha yoga. A ghazal is a form of poetry that comes from Arabic literature.)
The stronger the voices of patients and carers, the more of a difference we can make in services for the cancer community.
Dr Debjani Chatterjee, MBE
Debjani Chatterjee has written and edited over 50 books. Her many honours include an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University, a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship (from 2006-09) and an MBE. Among the health-related bodies of which she is a member are Sheffield Cancer Services Advisory Group, the Survivorship Project in Sheffield, Tai Chi for Breast Cancer, Cancer Voices, and Sheffield Carers Centre.
The haiku is from Debjani's latest poetry collection Words Spit & Splinter (Redbeck Press, 2009)
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