A big thank you to all of you who attended the Life Force Cancer Foundation Celebratory Lunch on Sunday
Next year marks 25 years since Life Force Cancer Foundation was founded and has being supporting cancer patients and carers.
This was the first celebratory event to kick off what we plan as 25 for 25 , to launch our website, facebook page and instagram.
Life Force Foundation is a NFP charity that survives on Grants, sponsorship and fundraising.
The Life Force Board and organisation is based on volunteers working to keep this space available to support cancer patients, survivor sand carers.
Our lunch on Sunday was a community event to get together and celebrate our achievements to date and also to raise awareness and funds.
Where do contributions to Life Force go…
- $70 provides a professional counsellor,
- $280 supports a single meeting,
- $600 provides a day retreat,
- $2800 provides a term of support for one group,
- $6000 supports a weekend retreat.
At Life Force we run support groups for carers, patients and survivors in the Eastern suburbs and Inner West and we have plans for another group in Western Sydney. We run regional programs, most recently in the in Mid North Coast and one will be conducted in Tamworth in October. Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour Hospitals has requested a 2 day residential programs for patients and survivors in that region.
Our dream……to take these programs further afield across NSW.
And what is that value….. What does it mean…… To be available to the cancer patient and the carer.
If you can imagine that one day, a day in your life that starts off as any other normal day; you may have an ache, a pain but somehow you might expect that day will end as other days…. but this day doesn’t, this day you get news, news that you have cancer.
What follows that news will, and always will be, different for every single person. It might be days, weeks, or months in hospital; it might be endless invasive treatments; it could be an operation or operations; it may mean you can’t continue your work; it may mean you can’t stay in your house; it may mean you can’t look after your kids; it may mean you have to witness your child’s pain, your partners pain, your family's pain, in understanding that you are sick.
It will be different for everyone. Some survive, some do not but there is one thing we will share:that day, that news, changes your life and those close to you forever. Life will never be the same again, and once the cancer journey is done, if it is done, then the journey is finding a way back.
What Life Force offers is group support every single week, a place to check in, a place to say out loud what you are feeling, what’s scary, what’s painful, what’s annoying, or what’s worked, what’s good, for what you are grateful.
Unlike many support groups Life Force is not prescriptive, non-discriminatory - Life Force takes all cancers.
What Life Force is
Life Force is a space to be heard, which is so healing because some things cannot be fixed, they just are... Then we offer relaxation and meditation, and some tools for the week ahead.
It’s a space of ongoing support during a difficult situation in your life, gosh it can be a nightmare in your life! When all the energy you might find is used to deal with the medical roundabout, Life Force offers emotional support and encouragement.
This is important when more than a third of Australians are affected.
Thank you sincerely those who attended on Sunday, and those who donated.
Enjoy the pictures, it was a fun day.
