Canadian Cancer Society suspends peer support program over financial strain
After being diagnosed with lung cancer, undergoing surgery and spending a month in hospital, Janis Walsh felt depressed.
Her husband was supporting her every step of the way, but he didn’t always understand what she was going through. The many questions left bouncing in her mind were not always technical questions that could be answered by her surgeon or her family doctor.
Sometimes she just wanted to talk to someone who had been through what she was experiencing.
That’s when she found the Canadian Cancer Society’s (CSS) Peer Match Program, which connects current cancer patients with someone who used to have the same type of cancer.
“After the surgery … every little twinge I had was like, ‘Is this normal? Am I supposed to be feeling this? Am I supposed to be experiencing this?’ And so she answered a lot of those questions for me,” Walsh said in a recent phone interview.
“(She) gave me hope, gave me encouragement, just wouldn’t let me kind of go down that road of self-pity.”
That was in 2006, and a year later Walsh decided to turn around and give that support back to other cancer patients by becoming one of the volunteers in the Peer Match Program. Since then, Walsh has helped numerous people from across Canada in their own journeys with cancer.
But on May 20, she received an email from CCS saying the program was being suspended indefinitely because of the financial impact of the COVID19 pandemic. New clients are not being accepted as of May 22, and existing peer matches will end on June 19, according to the email.
“I just think it’s so, so sad and so disappointing for everybody,” Walsh said.
In an emailed statement sent to the Leader-Post, CCS said the pandemic has created the “greatest financial challenge” the organization has faced in its 80-year history. CCS estimates its revenue will drop between $80 million and $100 million in 2020.
“As a result, we have had to make difficult decisions with regards to our programming, including suspending our Peer Match program for the foreseeable future,” the email said.
“People with cancer need us more than ever at this most difficult time and our work as Canada’s cancer authority must continue.”
Fundraisers being cancelled, people donating less while facing their own financial difficulties and a drop in investment earnings all contribute to this revenue decrease, according to the email sent to the program’s volunteers. CCS also noted it anticipates the impact of COVID-19 will last for several years.
Walsh said she is glad to have a couple of weeks left with her current match before the program is officially suspended, but worries how the loss of the program will impact current cancer patients and those who receive a diagnosis during the pandemic.
“I can’t even imagine someone who’s been newly diagnosed with cancer having to deal with going through that and chemo treatments and having to deal with COVID19 all at the same time,” said Walsh.
“They need all the support they can get.”