Deaf Woman with Breast Cancer

[Kuchenhexe]

Hello, I'm new to the forum, but not new to being deaf. I lost my hearing at age 4 to meningitis in 1978. I was fully deaf ever since. In 2010, I obtained a cochlear implant and went into a nursing career. I've since had to retire after being diagnosed with Stage 4 (metastatic) breast cancer.

I'm very much an activist in metastatic breast cancer awareness, and I'm a moderator on the Young Survival Coalition community boards. This is relevant to the deaf community because I've discovered that the only support groups for breast cancer that I could find being offered anywhere were all telephone-based and therefore inaccessible!

I have been talking with regional and national staff at YSC about how the deaf community is being overlooked and ignored in terms of breast cancer support, and they've recently agreed to start up a program using the chat room feature on the boards, and then later, if there's enough interest, to setting up a video chat for the deaf breast cancer survivors.

I'm very excited about this, and while I don't wish for anyone to have breast cancer, I'm trying to get the word out to as many people as possible since I can hardly be the only deaf person with breast cancer, and a nationwide program is listening and acknowledging our needs.

Please feel free to comment with questions. Below is a copy of the email I just received from the senior manager of field operations at YSC:

I have talked with my National office about this and we are excited and think it is a good idea. Our thought was to start off for the month of October to set the date/time and use the chat function of the community boards. I can also post it on the online community board calendar. Can you promote it through the resources you know of in the deaf/HoH community? We would want to target the young (45’ish) and under breast cancer survivors to participate in the chat. Since we are still in the middle of piloting this program (it’s just 4 months out since launch) we could talk about adding it to our regular line-up of calls if the interest is there as we test it through the community boards over the next two or three months. If it seems like it’s going well and the interest for the program is there then we could start using the online video format in January. Does this sound good to you? We are so appreciative of you bringing this need to our attention and are excited to be a part of it going forward.