Resources: Look Good ... Feel Better

"Look Good...Feel Better is a free community service program dedicated to helping Australians cope with chemotherapy side effects, such as hair loss and changes to the skin. Cancer treatment and the ensuing appearance changes can be a very difficult for many of the thousands diagnosed with cancer each year in this country. The purpose of the program is to help them manage these side effects, with the use of skin care, make-up, hats, turbans and wigs, thereby helping to restore their appearance and self image."

My experience with "Look Good...Feel Better" wasn't quite what I had expected... but I don't really know what I expected.

It was the first time I had:

• been in public with my cancer but not talked about it
  
• revealed my bald head outside of my home
• realised that cancer as a young adult was really different to that as a child or post-50

I felt really out of place with the older women around me. I felt strange to be in a room full of women who seemed to have forced joviality. I felt weird to be surrounded by cancer but not talk about it.

In retrospect, it was fabulous. It allowed me to think about having cancer, to acknowledge it, to consider some of the practical aspects, and to have some kind of fun - albeit forced fun - fun nevertheless. You know when you start to laugh, even though something isn't that funny, but if you keep laughing you soon forget what was(n't) funny but you just laugh for the sake of it. Well, the fun we had at LG...FB was a little bit like that.

It was wonderful to be able to be out and doing something other than going to the hospital for medical appointments, and although cancer was the reason why we were in that room together, it wasn't the focus. Cancer was the means; enjoying ourselves with some free beauty products was the ends. (I would NOT say they were justified.)

Now I am volunteer with Look Good ... Feel Better, every fourth Wednesday at the RBWH. I really enjoy spending time with the ladies and demonstrating how to draw on eyebrows and put on make-up to best enhance what we have!

Helpful Hints for Cancer: Lite n'Easy

Living with cancer is a full time job. When you've got one person in your household who is a full-time worker and full-time carer and the other person is full-time trying to feel better, simple things like cooking and cleaning are incredibly hard to manage.

We weren't eligible for "Meals on Wheels" as we didn't meet the selection criteria for this wonderful service. We did have family members and friends come and help out (which we are very grateful for), but in terms of ongoing chores, we found two really great solutions:

1. Get a cleaner.

2. Get Lite n' Easy (or something similar).

"Lite n' Easy delivers great tasting, healthy meals ... a convenient solution for time poor people who are too busy to shop or cook everyday." (www.liteneasy.com.au)


This was us in a nutshell.  We only ordered their dinners.

You don't have to join any "plan", talk to any consultant, or sign up for anything ongoing. You just jump online, click "dinners only", choose what you want, and they get delivered to your door. You don't even have to be home for the delivery!

The meals go directly into the freezer and only take 10 minutes or so to heat up in the microwave. We usually order 10 meals at a time: 2 x 5 different dishes. The work out to be just under $10 per dinner, which is cheaper than takeaway/delivery AND you know you're getting a balanced meal. What are the meals like? Well, of course they are not like a home-cooked or freshly-prepared meal. The have been frozen. However, they are tasty, varied, and I liken them to good quality aeroplane food.

One of our ongoing favourites is the Fisherman's Pie.

They were an absolute life saver for us.

If you know someone who has recently been diagnosed, aside from a Hatiheri headscarf, a Lite n' Easy gift voucher (or meal delivery) would make a wonderful gift.