How to Get Involved
Be a Survivorship Peer Partner
The role of a Survivorship Peer Volunteer is a special one. As a survivor, you have a great deal of wisdom that can be helpful to others. Do you remember how helpful it was, when you were first diagnosed with cancer, to find someone to talk to that had survived it? You have been there, you know all about the fear, the questions and the answers you were looking for when you were in treatment. The reassurance you can offer newly diagnosed survivors is so valuable to the work of Princess Margaret Hospital.
As survivors, many of you have already found special and personal ways to “give back” to others with the disease. It can be a challenge to manage the needs of other people with cancer while still looking after your own emotional needs. The Survivorship Peer Program is a special and unique program where we offer you formal training and supervision to support others who are currently living with active cancer, and help you learn to manage your own fears about reoccurrence. We want to invite you to become part of a special team of Breast Cancer Survivorship Peers.
To be a Survivorship Peer Volunteer in the program you need to be one year past your last treatment to make sure you have given yourself enough time to care for your own needs before supporting others. The Survivorship Peer Program consists of a minimum of a year’s commitment, four days of training and two four hour shifts per month. This can be an incredibly rewarding learning opportunity that will provide you with skills that could be used in many work or volunteer settings.
There are lots of ways you can help:
Survivorship Centre
You will meet, greet and socialize with new survivors in the Survivorship Centre, a homelike setting where ‘new survivors’ can relax and find someone to talk with who has been on the same journey. Sometimes just having a peer to chat with will be support enough for someone who is just beginning to understand what living with cancer is all about.
Managing Your Cancer Journey
Telling your personal story of survival can help new survivors. Survivors’ stories can be inspirational and reassuring to someone who has recently been diagnosed.