Why the Ingeborg Douwes foundation and the need for psychosocial care?

Imagine, you are a young mother of three children all under the age of ten years. The doctor informs you that your breast cancer has spread to your bones and liver! How do you deal with the fear, anger and inner confusion? How do you explain it to your children? And how do you and your partner handle these powerful and intense emotions?
During her many hospital stays, Ingeborg Douwes was treated by many professional, efficient and highly competent doctors and nurses but she recognised that an underlying emotional support was absent. Together with her husband she established the Ingeborg Douwes Foundation when they were confronted with just such earth shattering news and decided to meet the challenge with both courage and tenacity.
The aim is to raise and procure funds that will support psychosocial care to cancer patients and their families as well as spreading the word within the medical profession itself.

When confronted with a life threatening illness, you are suddenly faced with your own mortality. The patient and their loved ones are forced to accept this new situation with its new limits. Psychosocial care focuses on developing and strengthening the inner self in order to redress the balance. Living with cancer is a mental learning process and this may be achieved through discussion (in groups or one- on-one) and/or relaxation exercises. In this way it is hoped to find inner peace, allowing the patient and their loved ones to discover a renewed purpose in their lives. It is all about maximizing the quality of life.
The Dutch health care system will be faced with an increasing amount of cancer patients, as cancer itself is expected to become more of a chronic illness. People will generally live longer and coupled with more effective treatments that will be easier to tolerate, the survival of cancer patients will increase as will their length of survival  in the years to come.

Ingeborg used to say: "You don't get to choose when you're going to die and how, you can only decide how you're going to live your life... and the best way is now!"