A cancer patient's story
Mary was 35 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She found it difficult to talk about it to her husband and her two young daughters.
During chemotherapy and radiotherapy she struggled on. But at the end of the treatment, things seemed to crowd in: she began to cry a lot, found housework hugely difficult and could not shake off a nagging fear that the cancer would come back.
Eventually she told her cancer specialist how she felt. He referred her to a psycho-oncology nurse specialist who, along with a psychiatrist, began to treat Mary.
Two years on, she is both physically and psychologically well. While she still worries about a recurrence of the cancer, she has learned to deal with these fears as part of every day.
To protect patient privacy, Mary's story represents a combination of case histories.