Short description:

This book is an easy-to-read self-help guide for people facing cancer diagnosis and treatment. Following an effective Q&A format and based on a unique Wellbeing Essentials framework, it offers a valuable ?dip in and out? approach with signposting to evidence-based guidance on major challenges they may face.

Long description:

Rising to the Challenge of Life After Cancer: Expert Advice for Finding Wellness is an easy-to-read self-help guide for people facing cancer diagnosis and treatment. Following an effective Q&A format and based on a unique Wellbeing Essentials framework, it offers a valuable ?dip in and out? approach with signposting to evidence-based guidance on major challenges that those diagnosed with cancer and their family and friends may face. If you or someone close to you has had a cancer diagnosis, then this book is for you.

With a focus on wellness and taking control, questions addressed include ?Is there a best way to cope with cancer??, ?What strategies can help me make an informed decision about treatment??, ?What is prehabilitation and how can this help me??, and ?Who am I now??. The book covers an array of essential guidance from maintaining social health and wellbeing, to accessing care and support in the community. It is written for both those living with or beyond cancer as well as their support network. The book also includes Jeff and Suzanne?s personal stories about their lived experience of cancer and a Resources and Connections section with tips for further information and support.

Written by academic experts who are also ?experts by experience?, this book is indispensable for people with cancer and their families, and anyone wanting to understand more about the condition, as well as health and social care professionals and students of social care, health care and nursing.

'The strength of this book ? aimed at helping people with cancer, their families and loved ones ? is the authenticity that comes from two cancer professionals who have been through, and are still going through, dealing with cancer themselves either as patient or partner, reaching out to share their objective knowledge along with their personal experience. 

These authors set the standard for how to write about coping with cancer by bringing together the weight of their many years of professional experience with their personal journey.  A very helpful book to guide others through the emotional, social and physical maze that cancer presents. I highly recommend it.'

Adjunct Professor Maggie Watson PhD. DipClinPsych. AFBPS. Editor Emeritus: Psycho-oncology: Journal of Psychological, Social and Behavioral Dimensions of Cancer and Associate Fellow British Psychological Society

'Despite all the advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment, or perhaps because of them, navigating a myriad of challenges after a cancer diagnosis, can be an overwhelming task for the person with cancer and their family. The stakes could not be higher. And while the technical information on treatment types and side effects is increasingly available, the more existential questions of what this illness means to me, my life and my loved ones, often remain unanswered.

Enter Rising to the Challenge of Life After Cancer: Expert Advice for Finding Wellness ? a concise Q&A style guide to some of these questions, written be a pair of experts in supportive care in cancer who are also experts through lived experience of facing the cancer diagnosis themselves. The guide explores key issues of meaning, normality, identity, relationships, and flourishing with honesty, courage and a touch of self-deprecating wit, that is so uniquely Australian. This is not a sanitized scholarly manuscript ? this is the story that touches deeply at emotions. As a result, the words of advice are not only convincing because of their grounding in evidence, but also because of their authenticity.

It takes courage to take a great personal challenge, like a cancer diagnosis, and use it for a greater good. Professors Dunn and Chambers have done just that, and we are all better for it.'

Professor Bogda Koczwara AM BM BS FRACP MBioethics FAICD  she/her . Senior Staff Specialist, Department of Medical Oncology, Flinders Medical Centre. Professor, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, Flinders University

Table of Contents:

Foreword. Acknowledgments. The Authors. Chapter 1. What Am I Facing?. Chapter 2. Is There a Best Way to Make Decisions About My Treatment?. Chapter 3. What Is Prehabilitation and How Can This Help Me?. Chapter 4. How Do I Know if I Am Coping Well?. Chapter 5. Is There a Helpful Way to Think When Under Stress?. Chapter 6. Identity: Who Am I Now?. Chapter 7. How Does Cancer Affect Relationships?. Chapter 8. I Feel Stuck: How Can I Change This?. Chapter 9. What Are the Wellbeing Essentials?. Chapter 10. Is It Possible to Flourish After Cancer?. Resources and Connections.