HOPE can open your mind up to considering a wide range of possibilities. Consider how people feel when they have been given the diagnosis of something such as cancer. A friend of mine had this type of devastating news some years ago. She died a number of years later whilst in her early forties. For the purposes of this article, I will refer to her as Anne.
I remember how I felt when I first went to visit Anne at home after she had got the news. I felt sad, angry, disappointed, and anxious. I could not imagine how I would have managed to cope with what I saw as overwhelming and ultimately out of my CONTROL, had I been in her position.
I am aware that what I saw was only snapshots of how she was coping, and that family may have been presented at times with a very different picture .Anne put me at my ease. One of the first comments she made was that she saw this as an OPPORTUNITY for her to take a look at how she was living her life and make CHANGES.
Anne took PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for finding out as much as she could about her cancer and treatment options and implications of particular choices. She knew at that stage what would be acceptable to her and...