WHAT

“Lang varm dusj” is a system that allows people to help others, while helping themselves. It consists of a notebook and a webpage for young adults going through chemotherapy and their family and friends.

It is a reflective notebook that consists of therapeutic writing exercises, activities that provide a sense of mastery, distraction and push for activity and social interaction. The notebook is designed to be a gift the friends that are at a loss for words give to the person in treatment: “I don’t know what to say, but take this. This is made by those who have experienced what you are going through.”

The stories from the notebook are collected on the webpage, allowing friends and family to learn about supporting strategies among other things. The system is based on a co-design principle where new chapters and versions of the book continue to be developed as the collection grows. This provides insight, coping strategies and new content for cancer patients and their relatives by experienced cancer patients. 

WHY

The patients going through chemotherapy experience that close relations become more distant and often disappear. The interview subjects suggested friends and family lack relatable experiences, a vocabulary and “don’t want to get in the way.”

The patients going into chemotherapy need knowledge based on real experiences before starting their treatment. The people in midst of their treatment need strategies of coping, sense of mastery, distraction and general ways of handling the situation. The people that are finished often have a wish to help others, but don’t know how.

HOW

Researching such a sensitive topic requires a specific set of experiences which I gained by going through chemotherapy in 2020. This experience was documented through film, both by myself and others. Because of this, Kreftforeningen and Ung Kreft accepted my proposal to collaborate. This allowed me to recruit both former and current patients going through chemotherapy to the project. My experiences were essential during the qualitative interviews, probing and thematic picture analysis.