Going Back to Work With Cancer

For many work provides a sense of purpose and value and going back to work provides a sense of normalcy. Balancing your career and cancer diagnosis can be challenging. To help you gain understanding of your rights in the workplace and create solutions, YSC has partnered with Cancer and Careers. As part of this new partnership several FREE workshops have been planned across the country to bring experts on the subject of cancer and the workplace directly to you. If there's not a workshop scheduled in your community remember to utilize our (audio files and printed transcripts). Look under the Practically Speaking section to listen to related workshops.

A diagnosis of breast cancer is never easy to absorb, figuring out how to share this information with family and friends is difficult and emotional. Then comes the next challenge, returning to work, sharing this information with your employer, your co-workers, your clients and your friends in the workplace.

You are not under an obligation to tell everyone either at your current or potential place of employment. Who and how you inform your workplace of your diagnosis is a very personal decision. If you work for a larger company and your department has a Human Resources (HR) professional assigned to it, you may only need to tell that one person. If you have medical insurance/coverage through your employer you can opt to work with your HR professional to understand your coverage. Your HR professional can also help you to inform your manager or to make sure you are not penalized for taking time out of the work day for doctor's visits or treatments. Generally, both supervisors and co-workers will appreciate your openness and will be supportive of your situation. Yet, we encourage you to learn about your rights and protections. ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and the FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) give employees-at-will tremendous protection.

Protect Your Privacy - If you decide to share a minimum amount of information, consider sharing the following points with your HR Professional:

• Your diagnosis
• An explanation, in layman's terms, of what your diagnosis means
• Expected course of treatment
• Expected leave of absences or sick days, if any

It is hard to know the culture of each individual workplace, think about the following when deciding who to tell and what to tell them:
Are you working in a larger corporate environment where you are part of a smaller team? Do you work for a small organization where your co-workers feel like family? Is there a general sense of trust? Are you a member of a union or an at-will employee? These questions may help you make a plan for sharing information about your diagnosis, treatment and work needs.

Don't be Afraid to Ask for Help
This can be one of the hardest steps in the process of telling those you work with. We all strive to be our best in the workplace, to deliver top results and prove our value to our company/organization. Treatment can be taxing, and will most likely cause you to slow down, or have absences during the work day. Co-workers and managers can best help if they know what you need. If it is an extended deadline when possible, changing the time of a standing meeting or the opportunity to work from home the important thing to remember is to ASK. Asking for help does not mean that you are any less smart, competent or capable - just that you need to take care of yourself during and after this challenging time.

Jubilee--Click on Story to Read

This Is Our First Post. We Are Repeating It.

For those who are seeing this blog for the first time and for those who would like a refresher, we are repeating it. There are many changes as far as the hospitals and the amount of caps we have completed. Since the beginning of our project until now, over 6000 caps have been made. We have received caps from California to England and, of course, from our Texas knitters and crocheters. We are so proud of everyone who has contributed to our project. We have more than 5 hospitals that we deliver to now. We know that Joyce is watching over our project as we continue in her memory.
Joyce's Chemo

The Chemo Cap Project was started by Jan Goble, Lena Louter and Vivian Denbow after a mutual friend Joyce Schmitt was diagnosed with cancer. Joyce said that the caps she had to sleep in hurt he head because of the seams. We found patterns on the Internet for Chemo Caps. The patterns suggested using yarns that were soft to the touch. Jan and I bought yarn and started making the caps. We asked Joyce to "approve the yarn" to make sure it was soft. We started knitting the caps at the Allen Senior Recreation Center on August 1, 2007. Several of our friends at the center have joined us in making the Chemo Caps. Since many of the women can crochet and knit we have patterns for both types of caps. The caps are great for sleeping or being out on the town. Our Allen group had grown and now we have over twenty women knitting and crocheting the Chemo Caps. Our project has been shared with family and friends and spread to Dallas, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennslyvania, Iowa and Virginia.
Some of the senior who can not make the caps have either donated money or yarn to the project.
We found several cancer centers in Collin County that wanted the caps. We are currently working with the McKinney Cancer Center and Plano Cancer Center to distribute adult caps. Our only stipulation was that the caps be given to patients that could use the caps at no cost. Lena's main focus had been on childresn's Chemo Caps. Lena has made over 100 plus children's caps and has sent them to St Jude's Children's Hospital and the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas.
In October we proudly renamed our Chemo Cap Project "Joyce's Chemo Caps" because without her friendshp and understanding of the great need for Chemo Caps we would not have know there was a need.
With your support over 1,500 "Joyce's Chemo Caps" have been made and distributed to cancer facilities in Collin County, and across the United States. Since the need is so great we are currently looking at additional facilities where we can distribute our caps.
If you know anyone who would like to join our group and make Chemo Caps, please contact Jan or Vivian. also if you know of a person in need of a Chemo Cap, they may contact either one of the Cancer Centers that have been mentioned.
Thank you all so much for your continued support. Each and evey one of you had made a difference in someone's life for your committment to this project
Cap Project