Coping emotionally and finding gratitude with cancer at age 73 (Pert’s story)

March 1, 2011

In this video, Pert talks about being diagnosed with colorectal cancer at age 73, coping with her emotions and knowing when to get support

Watch as Pert talks about being diagnosed with colorectal cancer when she was 73 years old and how she coped with her emotions. She also talks about her perspective as an elderly person.

She shares how she had to get used to her pouch and how she needed help, especially with meals after certain treatments. She also discusses being grateful and shares a positive perspective on life.

Pert passed away in March 2010. This interview took place in June 2009, about two years after her diagnosis. She lived in Toronto, Ontario, surrounded by friends and family.

If I was looking at this very subjectively but hadn’t been a patient yet, I don’t think I could have had any idea of the breadth and length and depth of the experience. Because it is a very all-encompassing type of thing and that is partly literally the disease and partly the myth around the disease, I think. I realize I live in a good country, where I’m safe and I’m comfortable and I’m fed and I’m housed and I’m clothed and I have fun and a great family and friends and I have some health problems and we’re dealing with them as well as we can. So, I am very grateful, I really am.

Watch the video of Pert talking about coping with cancer and finding gratitude

The Partnership’s Person-Centred Perspective initiative is committed to improving the patient experience. We are working with partners across Canada to find the best ways to offer a person-centred perspective throughout a person’s cancer journey and to help information flow throughout. The impact of a cancer diagnosis goes far beyond the physical disease. It affects every aspect of a person’s life. The initiative has focused on reporting about the patient experience, and giving health-care providers patient-centred tools and resources, which have been validated and standardized.

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