With May just around the corner, Fans for the Cure is delighted to announce our Celebrating Mother’s Day campaign. We are shining a spotlight on Mother’s Day as a way for those in the prostate cancer community to thank the women in their lives, to highlight the great work that so many women do as caregivers, to grow awareness about our women’s support group, and to fundraise for our women’s support group program.
Over the years of supporting men with prostate cancer, we have come to better understand the key role that the wives, partners, girlfriends, and significant others play in the lives of those men. Since we began organizing and facilitating a men’s support group online, we have increasingly come to appreciate how much men with prostate cancer rely upon the women and caregivers who support them during their challenges.
Send a Special Thank You
We know that it is not always easy to remember to say “thank you” when we should. That can be especially hard for men journeying through a tough patch of medical treatment or recovery.
For Celebrating Mother’s Day, we invite men whose wives or significant others played – and perhaps continue to play – a major role in their prostate cancer journey, to share a special thank you with those women. Let them know how much their love, support, and care meant. Even if you have told them before – tell them again.
Highlight the Role of Caregivers
There is a phrase that we often hear women say, “When my husband got prostate cancer, we all got prostate cancer.” Experience across cancer communities makes it clear that while a single person may be diagnosed with the disease, it changes the lives of everyone around that person.
Wives, partners, girlfriends, and significant others often find themselves in caregiver roles. Yet, caregivers can also be sons and daughters. They can be friends, neighbors, work colleagues, fellow parishioners and more.
At Fans for the Cure, we have come to see caregivers as anyone who makes a deliberate effort to extend support to a cancer patient during their time of need. That support can be daily and deeply involved, as is often the case for family members. Yet it can also be less frequent, like a neighbor who drops off an occasional meal or an old friend from college who texts and calls much more regularly.
During this Celebrating Mother’s Day campaign, we are asking the prostate cancer community to share the stories of the caregivers who helped them during their times of need. Let’s work to help everyone see the value and great work of caregivers, and to highlight the many ways that others can serve as caregivers.
Spread the Word about Our Women’s Support Group
In December 2020, Fans for the Cure launched an online support group for women journeying with men through prostate cancer. While that group has grown slowly and steadily, we are confident that more women could benefit from the shared conversation of other who facing similar challenges and experiences.
In Celebrating Mother’s Day, we are asking everyone to help us spread the word about our Women’s Support Group. It is free and open to all women. The group meets for about an hour every other Tuesday evening Eastern time.
Donate to Support Our Women’s Group
The running of our women’s support group presents a real cost to our organization. In Celebrating Mother’s Day, we are asking for donations to help us cover the costs of this important program – and to fund our efforts to grow the program. We are looking to conduct more outreach to help more women take advantage of this wonderfully supportive program.
