Operation Santa Claus: Hong Kong cancer patient gains from meditation, yoga
Breast cancer sufferer Chan Wai-yue develops new attitude at Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre, which is a beneficiary of Operation Santa Claus
Chan Wai-yue gets out of bed first thing every morning, walks over to the living room and sits down on a little mat by the sofa. She turns her attention to her breath, and tries to keep still despite the jabbing pains going up and down her arm.
Chan, 62, was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago, undergoing one operation and a series of chemotherapy and radiology sessions that left her with painful nerve damage across the right side of her body.
"I felt helpless when I was told about my diagnosis," she said. "The kids had finally grown up and I had been looking forward to starting to enjoy life."
She went into remission after 25 sessions of chemotherapy, eight of radiotherapy and a course of hormone pills. She then began to experience searing discomfort in her arm.
"I get all kinds of pain all the time," she said. "Sometimes it feels like needles pricking my skin, sometimes it's like bee stings or someone twisting and pulling my arms," she said.
A friend and fellow cancer survivor suggested she visit Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre in Tuen Mun. It is based in a small house surrounded by ponds and a pristine garden and offers soothing holistic treatment for the hardships patients endure.
"The first time I tried meditation I actually felt even more pain in my arm than normal," she recalled of her first class.
"But the instructor told me to keep practising and it will get better. What I realised eventually was that meditation wasn't meant to relieve the pain, but to change how I perceive it."
Chan's arm still hurts, but she said her new-found positive attitude towards her discomfort made it manageable. Now that she practises meditation twice daily, alongside yoga, her whole outlook on life has changed.
"I feel more confident, I have a better posture and I've learned to live more in the present," she said, describing how an experience as mundane as a train journey can feel pleasant now that she is more aware of her surroundings. She enjoys sunsets and the calmness of the night much more than before. She said her relationship with her family was also more harmonious, describing how she no longer nitpicked when they cooked meals for her, but had instead learned to appreciate their care.
Many cancer survivors experience similar emotional breakthroughs after coming to the centre, according to its head, Helen Lui. Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre is a beneficiary of this year's Operation Santa Claus, the annual charity drive organised by the and RTHK. Funds will go towards the centre's "Mind-Body-Spirit" programmes, offering around 850 cancer patients opportunities to participate in yoga, meditation, tai chi and other programmes that can help supplement medical treatment.
BACKGROUND: This story published as part of an historic collaboration between the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Baptist University journalism department
