REBUILDING AFTER BATTLING WITH CANCER…

Cancer is a fight for patients and their families.

Today, advances in medicine allow us to hope for a cure, but when the body and the mind have been tested, nothing is less simple than to repair oneself and get back to our everyday lives, which will never be the same again.
Rebuilding, reclaiming your body, finding a place at work again and in your family after this physical and psychological tsunami is a long journey that requires patience and support and is as unique as it is personal.

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of reliving this journey on Europe 1 on Wendy Bouchard’s radio show 
“Le tour de la question” with Dr. Alain Toledano and Eli Bernado (a cancer survivor).

We discussed post-cancer and how to recover from this ordeal and the balance between guilt and thirst for life.

“Modern oncology is more and more effective, but we found that it has often left the impression of being more concerned with the disease than the patient. Ever more important, it is precisely at this moment that the patient truly needs their oncologist the most, because only if the patient is helped will they be able to rebuild themselves “(Alain Toledano).

Incredible as it may seem, it is true that 60% of people affected by cancer live this “after period” with more difficulty.

During our treatment, we are taken care of and supported. The calendar is full and for several months, there are only medical appointments. When all of a sudden they stop, all at once, there is an emptiness, a void: no reference and no follow-up or very rarely.

We feel helpless. We find ourselves alone facing our anxieties, our questions, and our new “self”. The disease has transformed us. We must learn to deal with indelible scars.

To accompany patients in this delicate but crucial period of reconstruction, Dr. Alain Toledano presented the Institut Rafaël (which was inaugurated on November 8th) whose mission it is to encourage many patients to take up the post-cancer challenge.

In order to promote resilience, the Institut Rafaël, located in Levallois-Perret, in the Paris region, plans to take care of patients in their entirety and customizes each course to best meet each person’s long-term goals or life projects.

At one’s own pace, through words, through sport, art and cooking, everyone has the right to rebuild oneself, not only for oneself but also for the benefit of their entourage and thus for society. This reconstruction is not done without doubt and fear, but also with joy. People need to be encouraged and accompanied, so that every person touched in their flesh and in their heart by the disease can find the determination and strength to move on.

Because reconciling the body and soul is so important after such a trauma, it is with great pleasure that Ozalys will offer, in one unique, innovative and specific location, within its walls, the first Onco-aesthetic Salon. With products specifically designed by expert hands, Ozalys offers specific care to relearn how to look at each other again, relearn how to touch, relearn how to be touched, and learn to love each other again.

This commitment to the Institut Rafael is naturally part of the societal dimension of Ozalys, and allows me once again to give meaning to the trials of the disease.
Regularly, I receive testimonies from women in difficulty; I answer their questions, share my experience in this ordeal and even coach some. I hope, through my words, my advice and my actions, to relieve them and move them forward in order to promote well-being and comfort.

Cancer only increases inequalities. The vocation of Ozalys is to help lift up the most fragile of us and offer them a bubble of lightness and gentleness while lifting the taboos on cancer in the world of work among other things, to change people’s perception of women affected by this disease. With Cancer@Work, I stand by and support all the women in the company during their struggle for resilience and for their return to employment.

Because after cancer, it is not a question of “surviving”, but of living. Living without guilt, but never forgetting our sisters who did not have the chance.