Standing in a room with a group of people she didn’t know, Maureen Elliott took in a deep breath and let it out with a laugh: “Ha.”
She breathed in again and laughed again: “Ha, ha.”
Beside her, her mom Lorraine threw her head back and starting full-on laughing. It was contagious. Pretty soon, the whole group was laughing so hard some of them had tears in their eyes.
It’s called laughter wellness, and was just one of the exercises offered at a recent LIFE program workshop designed for people with cancer. The free event was presented by InspireHealth Supportive Cancer Care at its main office in Vancouver.
Participants are allowed to bring a support person to the free event, and Elliott brought her mom, who is a retired nurse. On Tuesday, InspireHealth is offering a one-day version of the workshop at West Vancouver Memorial Library.
“It’s amazing, and when I left I felt a bit more in control of an uncontrollable situation,” says Elliott of her experience with the event.
In January, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, a friend introduced her to someone who also had breast cancer, and that person recommended the LIFE program as a positive resource.
A longtime business owner in West Vancouver, Elliott had closed her Bellevue-area boutique, Prelude Fashion, last year for reasons not related to her illness, but realizes now it was a blessing in disguise as it would have added more stress to her current situation living with cancer.
The LIVE group Elliott attended in February consisted of a mix of people of varying ages, some who had been recently diagnosed with cancer, some who had cancer longer, and some who were in remission.
“I think it’s a valuable tool,” she says of the workshop. “Unless you’re going through this journey, as we like to call it, it’s difficult to really understand how it kind of turns your life upside down and the people around you.”
Like many people would these days, Elliott turned to the Internet for information when she was first diagnosed but found a lot of conflicting information. She says the LIFE program workshop included more reliable information, including presentations by a doctor, who provided data and statistics, and suggestions for online sources of information.
Other topics included healthy eating, nutrition, exercise, sleep, tools for emotional and mental wellness, and tips and strategies for those supporting someone with cancer.
Elliott says she left with a better sense of how to navigate the next phase of her life.
She has been told her tumour is significant, but doctors are not yet sure exactly what stage of the disease she is in so, although a mastectomy is scheduled, the specifics of further treatment are unknown. But with plenty of support from family and friends, Elliott says she is on the beginning of her journey and ready to face it with a whole-body, positive approach to healing.
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LIFE program Touched by Cancer workshop: Learn about supportive cancer care, and how choices decisions and reactions may move us toward better health. InspireHealth offers a free workshop Tuesday, March 7, 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the West Vancouver Memorial Library, 1950 Marine Dr. Register by calling 604-734-7125.
