ROJoson PEP Talk: How to Live a Life with a Cancer Diagnosis

1. Empowerment
objective - for
laypeople to have an
understanding of
the tactics in how to
live a life with
cancer diagnosis
with focus on
ACCEPTANCE and
INTENTIONAL
LIVING PLAN.
December 10, 2022
1400H - 1500H
Via Zoom
How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis

2. Empowerment
objective - for
laypeople to have an
understanding of
the tactics in how to
live a life with
cancer diagnosis
with focus on
ACCEPTANCE and
INTENTIONAL
LIVING PLAN.
ROJoson PEP Talk
I have a Patient
Empowerment
Program in which I
like to empower the
lay people or
patients to take
control in the
management of
their health.
How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis

3. There are 3 courses
in the PEP Talk.
I completed the Core
Course on October 9,
2021.

4. From October 23,
2021 onwards, I have
been tackling Health
Disorder and Health
Issue Courses. This
may take 3 years or
longer.

5. Empowerment
objective - for
laypeople to have an
understanding of
the tactics in how to
live a life with
cancer diagnosis
with focus on
ACCEPTANCE and
INTENTIONAL
LIVING PLAN.
How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
My PEP TALK today
is entitled:
How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis

6. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
How to live a life with a cancer diagnosis
How does or how should one live a life after a
cancer diagnosis?
Here are my personal TPORs (thoughts,
perceptions, opinions and recommendations).

7. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
“After a cancer diagnosis” may mean the
following:
• Right after diagnosis that one is said to truly
have a cancer in the body
• During treatment
• After treatment
• During the surveillance (monitoring) period
• During the time cancer recurrence has
occurred
• During the near-end-of-life stage

8. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Note that psychological distresses (emotional
sufferings) can be seen in the following phases
of the cancer journey:
• PHASE OF DIAGNOSIS
• PHASE OF TREATMENT (DURING, RIGHT
AND/OR SOON AFTER TREATMENT)
• PHASE AFTER TREATMENT (IN REMISSION)
• PHASE WHEN THERE IS RECURRENCE OF
CANCER
• PHASE DURING NEAR-END-OF-LIFE
This is the reason for this talk on “How to live a
life with a cancer diagnosis.”

9. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
“How to live a life”
will be operationally defined as
how to live or continue to live a functional and
meaningful earthly life after a cancer diagnosis.

10. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
A lot of times, after a cancer diagnosis,
people or patients have ceased or have a hard
time
living a functional and meaningful
earthly life.
This is mainly due to uncontrolled ANXIETY
AND DEPRESSION which in turn are due to
• uncontrolled fear
• sadness
• personal apprehensions
• psychosocial apprehensions

11. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
I have identified the following which I think are key coping tactics
against the psychological distresses of cancer patients:
• Acceptance of the cancer diagnosis
• Intentional living plan in the light of cancer
diagnosis
• Trust in a competent and compassionate
physician
• Spiritual trust
• Support from loved ones and significant
others
• Cancer journey sharing

12. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Today, I will expound on ACCEPTANCE AND INTENTIONAL LIVING
PLAN as coping tactics against the psychological distresses of
cancer patients.
Before anything else, I like to emphasize that there must be
AWARENESS then ACCEPTANCE before the formulation of the
INTENTIONAL LIVING PLAN.
ILP

13. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
AWARENESS
At least of your cancer diagnosis and its
prognosis
with correlation to your purpose and estimated
lifespan on earth.
ILP

14. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
AFTER AWARENESS
ILP

15. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ACCEPTANCE
Acceptance of cancer has long been recognized
as playing a critical role in the psychological
adjustment to the illness (also true for other
diseases).
It is effective in reducing the patient’s distress
with cancer.

16. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
What is ACCEPTANCE?
Acceptance is emotion-focused coping that
involves acknowledging the reality of the illness,
learning to live with it, and engaging in attempts
to address it (Carver et al., 1989).
That is why I said there must be acceptance first
before the formulation of the intentional living
plan.

17. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
What is ACCEPTANCE?
Other definitions of acceptance
Acceptance of illness - as a process of value
change by which the patient accepts the losses
related to the illness while maintaining a sense
of self-worth. This process may involve exploring
new meanings or possibilities in life based on
one’s existing values and strengths (Wright,
1983).

18. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
What is ACCEPTANCE?
Other definitions of acceptance
Acceptance - as a willingness to be present with
one’s illness-related thoughts, feelings, and
bodily sensations without judging or making
unnecessary attempts to control them (Hayes,
Jacobson, Follette, & Dougher, 1994).

19. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
What is ACCEPTANCE?
Other definitions of acceptance
Acceptance is a realistic way of living with
illness; that is, an accepting patient does not
judge, avoid, or deny the illness, but continues
feasible engagement in everyday
activities.(McCracken and Eccleston 2003)

20. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Acceptance differs from resignation (i.e.,
fatalism).

21. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
For cancer patients, resignation refers to
considering the illness as fate and believing that
there is little or nothing one can do to change or
control the illness, its symptoms, and one’s
quality of life (Livneh, 2000).
In other words, resignation refers to giving up
and no longer striving for a fulfilling life—
choosing instead to remain helpless, hopeless,
and passive.

22. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Research suggests that ACCEPTANCE is
associated with LOWER anxiety and depressive
symptoms (e.g., Bussell & Naus, 2010; Peters,
Goedendorp, Verhagen, van der Graaf, &
Bleijenberg, 2014),
whereas RESIGNATION is associated with
HIGHER anxiety and depressive symptoms
(Andreu et al., 2012; Hong, Wei, & Wang, 2015).

23. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Acceptance also differs from a FIGHTING SPIRIT.
In the context of cancer, having a fighting spirit
involves viewing the illness as a challenge,
maintaining an optimistic outlook, and working
towards beating the disease (Livneh,
2000; Watson et al., 1988).
Although both acceptance and having a fighting
spirit involve taking an active stance, acceptance
does not necessarily include efforts of positive
reframing or aiming to change the course of the
disease.

24. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Acceptance of cancer is MAKING PEACE with the
disease.
Letting Go but Not Giving Up and Accepting the
Reality of a Cancer Diagnosis!

25. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Acceptance doesn’t mean that anyone is giving
up. Acceptance allows you to take control of
your life and focus on what’s most important to
you.
Live on despite a cancer diagnosis!
Continue to live a functional and meaningful life!

26. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
So, my foremost advice is ACCEPTANCE as the
coping tactic as this is effective in reducing the
patient’s distress with cancer.
ILP

27. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
After acceptance, make an INTENTIONAL LIVING
PLAN. This will constitute your plan of action for
a meaningful cancer journey.
ILP

28. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
My operational definition of intentional living
plan:
Intentional Living Plan (ILP) is a plan you make
targeting a certain number of years (guided by
the prognosis of your cancer) in which you write
down things you intend or want to accomplish
on your graduation day (last day of your
targeted year) which will make you feel you
have lived your life to the fullest; you have lived
a meaningful life; and you are contented and
ready to die a happy death. [Assumption and
reality: all of us will die one day.]

29. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Before making an intentional living plan, get the
following information from your trusted and
compassionate physician: (Make an intentional
living plan with the answers in mind.)
• Where is the cancer?
• What kind of cancer do I have?
• Has it spread?
• Can my cancer be treated?
• What is the prognosis of my cancer? What is
the chance that my cancer can be “cured”?

30. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
• What other tests or procedures do I need?
• What are my treatment options? How will
the treatment benefit me?
• What can I expect during treatment? What
are the side effects of the treatment?
• What happens if I don’t get treatment?

31. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
• What is the surveillance plan after
treatment?
• What can I do to prevent my cancer from
coming back?
• How likely are my children or other family
members to get cancer?
• Others

32. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
• Intentional living plan promotes living with
intention; living a purposeful life.
• It will be your cancer journey plan.
• It will be your plan on how to live a life with
a diagnosis of cancer.

33. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
My Intentional Living Plan (ILP)
PART I. Owner and Number of Years to Target for
the Intentional Living Plan.
OWNER OF INTENTIONAL LIVING PLAN (ILP):
NAME: Reynaldo O. Joson
Current Age: 70
From: Year ___2019_____ to _2024__2032_
From: Age ____70______ to _75___83___

34. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
My Intentional Living Plan (ILP)
PART I. Owner and Number of Years to Target
for the Intentional Living Plan.
NUMBER OF YEARS TO TARGET IN THE
INTENTIONAL LIFE PLAN: __5 yrs to 13 yrs__
If with STRETCH TARGET, specify the reasons.

35. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
PART II. People to include in Intentional Living
Plan
Enumerate the names of other people (spouse /
partner; children; and significant others) you
want to include in your Intentional Living Plan
(ILP).
SPOUSE / PARTNER to be included in the ILP:
NAME: ________________________ Current Age: ____
CHILDREN to be included in the ILP:
NAME: ________________________ Current Age: ____
SIGNIFICANT OTHERS to be included in the ILP:
NAME: ________________________ Current Age: ____

36. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
Part III. Legacies (Answer the following
questions as indicated)
IF I WERE TO DIE AT ___75___83___ YEARS
OLD (AGE) OR IN _2024___2032__ (YEAR),
WHAT ARE THE LEGACIES THAT I WANT TO
LEAVE BEHIND FOR MY FAMILY AND FOR MY
COMMUNITY? [Be as specific as possible and
include a timeline or deadline.]

37. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
Part IV. FOR SPOUSE / PARTNER (Answer the
following questions as indicated)
IF I WERE TO DIE AT ___75___83___ YEARS OLD
(AGE) OR IN _2024___2032__ (YEAR),
WHAT WILL I DO FOR MY SPOUSE /
PARTNER? [Be as specific as possible and include
a timeline or deadline. Place NA if not
applicable.]

38. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
Part V. FOR CHILDREN (Answer the following
questions as indicated)
IF I WERE TO DIE AT ___75___83___ YEARS OLD
(AGE) OR IN _2024___2032__ (YEAR),
WHAT WILL I DO FOR CHILDREN [Be as specific as
possible and include a timeline or deadline.
Place NA if not applicable.]

39. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
Part VI. FOR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS (Answer the
following questions as indicated)
IF I WERE TO DIE AT ___75___83___ YEARS OLD
(AGE) OR IN _2024___2032__ (YEAR),
WHAT WILL I DO FOR MY SIGNIFICANT
OTHERS? [Be as specific as possible and include a
timeline or deadline. Place NA if not applicable.]

40. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
Part VII. FOR MYSELF (Answer the following
questions as indicated)
IF I WERE TO DIE AT ___75___83___ YEARS OLD
(AGE) OR IN _2024___2032__ (YEAR),
WHAT WILL I DO FOR MYSELF? [Be as speciifc as
possible and include a timeline or deadline.
Include the following goals as applicable: health;
contentment; enjoyment; God or Creator;
financial; career; professional; social and
relationship goal; etc.]

41. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
Part VII. FOR MYSELF (Answer the following
questions as indicated)
IF I WERE TO DIE AT ___75___83___ YEARS OLD
(AGE) OR IN _2024___2032__ (YEAR),
WHAT WILL I DO FOR MYSELF? [Be as speciifc as
possible and include a timeline or deadline.
Include the following goals as applicable: health;
contentment; enjoyment; God or Creator;
financial; career; professional; social and
relationship goal; etc.]

42. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ROJoson Template of Intentional Living Plan
Part VIII. PREPARING FOR A HAPPY
DEATH (Answer the following questions as
indicated)
IF I WERE TO DIE AT ___75___83___ YEARS OLD
(AGE) OR IN _2024___2032__ (YEAR),
WHAT WILL I DO TO PREPARE FOR A HAPPY
DEATH (CONTENTED AND READY TO LEAVE THIS
EARTH)? [Be as specific as possible and include a timeline
or deadline.]
Signature
Date First Accomplished:
Date Reviewed and Updated:

43. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
Having a well-formulated INTENTIONAL LIVING
PLAN in the light of cancer can contribute to
• BEING HEALTHY and NOT CRIPPLED AS LONG
AS POSSIBLE
• BEING PRODUCTIVE
• HAVING PEACE OF MIND
• BEING CONTENTED
• ENJOYING LIFE
• BEING HAPPY IN LIFE
• REACHING THE REALISTIC LONGEVITY
TARGETS
• BEING READY TO FACE CURTAIN CALL
(DEATH)

44. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
So, my advice is to have acceptance of cancer as
the first step in living a life with cancer so as to
live a functional and meaningful earthly life as
long as possible.
• Make peace with the cancer disease or cancer
diagnosis.
• Let go but not giving up.
• Continue to live a functional and meaningful
earthly life as long as possible through your
well-formulated intentional living plan.

45. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
ILLUSTRATION
How Chuchi has lived her life with a cancer
diagnosis

46. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
How to live a life with a cancer diagnosis
How does or how should one live a life after a
cancer diagnosis?
Here are my personal TPORs (thoughts,
perceptions, opinions and recommendations).
Summary
Take Away

47. How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis
How to live a life with a cancer diagnosis
• What is the importance of ACCEPTANCE as a
coping tactic?
• What is ACCEPTANCE?
• How does ACCEPTANCE differ from
RESIGNATION? From FIGHTING SPIRIT?
• What is the importance of INTENTIONAL
LIVING PLAN after ACCEPTANCE?
• What is ROJoson’s Template of INTENTIONAL
LIVING PLAN?
Summary
Take Away

48. Take Away in
relation to
Patient
Empowerment
Be always in touch with reliable medical
information on HOW TO LIVE A LIFE with a cancer
diagnosis.
Knowledge is power; it gives power.
Use the 4Ks of Patient Empowerment:
Kaalaman, Kakayanan, Karapatan and
Kapangyarihan
to gain greater control over decisions in
how to live a life with a cancer diagnosis.
How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis

49. Empowerment
objective - for
laypeople to have an
understanding of
the tactics in how to
live a life with
cancer diagnosis
with focus on
ACCEPTANCE and
INTENTIONAL
LIVING PLAN.
How to Live a
Life with a
Cancer
Diagnosis