How spas support people who have experienced a cancer diagnosis

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and with it comes a world of pink ribbons and conversation about breast cancer, its symptoms, its treatments, and its statistics - and that's essential. However, in spas the conversation around cancer is actually about something else - it's about people.

The power of awareness

Raising awareness around cancer is more important than ever, as one in two people are expected to get it at some point in their lifetime, and it's widely reported that the number of under-50s worldwide being diagnosed with cancer has risen by nearly 80% in three decades.

While some of those figures will be the result of better diagnostics, and treatment is much more successful than it was even a decade ago, whatever your age or experience of cancer, it can be devastating. The more we talk about it, the more we can help people to understand the signs and symptoms earlier, and work towards better outcomes.

All of this we know, and the doctors, charities, researchers, scientists and so forth are doing a fantastic job. However, while they are busy treating the disease, who is treating the person?

Seeing the person and not the patient

Naturally, nurses, doctors themselves, and many in between are acutely aware of the person they are treating and the human experience that goes with cancer treatment. The emotions, the side effects of treatment, the dry skin, cracked nails, the impact of stress, the sleepless nights, the anxiety - they know all of this and more too well. However, their primary focus is, and has to be treating the cancer itself - no one else can do that.

When we talk about numbers it's so easy to detach from the daily reality of cancer, that so many people go through. However, for each person who's given that news, has their treatment and faces the outcome, it's not just about the outcome, it's about living each day, sometimes in pain, and often having to come to terms with enormous uncertainty. All of that can be overwhelming, and sometimes it's not about having answers, it's about having a moment of respite, where someone sees the person and not the patient for a change.

Cancer and its complexities in the spa environment

For many years now, the Spabreaks.com team has been working to make the spa world more accessible for anyone who has had a cancer diagnosis. We know the power a spa treatment has when it comes to helping us relax, unwind, have a moment to ourselves, take off our armour and be treated with care, kindness and the power of touch. It is something all of us can enjoy, at any time in our lives, and we certainly shouldn't be inhibited from it because of cancer, and yet that hasn't always been the case.

We have written extensively about the training that's required to make sure that spa therapists have the knowledge and training to provide meaningful support. It's not about making spa treatments about cancer - strange as it seems, it's actually about being able to stop cancer from controlling the spa experience.

Cancer adds vulnerabilities and complications into the spa experience, depending on the cancer itself, the treatment, the stage - all sorts. For therapists to able to adapt treatments for the extreme sensitivity of the skin, for anyone who is immune compromised, to work around stomas and mastectomy scars and so forth, without making an issue of it, it takes knowledge. For a long time, spas simply turned anyone with a known cancer diagnosis away, unable to treat them through a lack of knowledge and because insurance companies would not consequently cover them.

Since then, thanks to industry leaders and pioneers, that has changed. Dedicated training is available, and the result is treatments that are safe and provide the best support.

Taking away cancer's power - even if it's just for a moment

Today, therapists have access to training that empowers them in their ability to provide excellent care, so that spa goers can be confident they are safe and nurtured. They can talk about their diagnosis if they want to, or they can leave it at the door, but either way it is treated with the respect, due diligence and professional care.

Far from pretending cancer isn't happening, by acknowledging its existence spas and spa goers can diminish its power and put the person first - at least for the period of time they are cocooned in the spa environment. All it takes is for spa goers to know where to go to find qualified therapists, and for more spas to acknowledge the need for higher level training.

At Spabreaks.com we work with The Standards Authority for Touch in Cancer Care (SATCC) to deliver our Safe Hands for Cancer collection, which makes it easy to find spa destinations where therapists have had approved specialist training so they can adapt treatments for anyone with or recovering from cancer. It means that you can go on a spa break and enjoy it just like anyone else, knowing you're in safe hands.

Spa therapies can't treat cancer, but they can treat people, and while Breast Cancer Awareness Month might be essential for understanding the disease, for us it's about supporting the person.