Today's guest on The Mourning Session podcast is Clara Anderson Sainte. She is the Program Director at Gilda's Club Kansas City. The mission of Gilda's Club Kansas City is to "ensure that all people impacted by cancer are empowered by knowledge, strengthened by action and sustained by community".

In this episode, we discuss grief & loss in the cancer community.  There is a lot of disenfranchised grief (grief that is not acknowledged by society) with a cancer diagnosis.  For example, if a woman loses her hair because of chemotherapy treatments, she might be told that it is "only hair". 

In this episode we also look at the unrealistic expectations that are created for terminal cancer patients and their families. We examine the "battle" mentality that is so common in cancer treatment. We "kick cancer's butt" or we "loose our battle" with cancer.  We also discuss if it time to reconsider the term "cancer survivor". 

For more information on Gilda's Club Kansas City:
https://gildasclubkc.org

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