Hi everyone, I worked at a marketing company that specialized in oncology and recently I needed to make a artwork for the World Cancer Day. I have read about cancers and motivational quotes, but I wonder will the patients and the family member will be motivated when hearing any hopes giving speech or motivational phrases. Because to me, cancer might be cure-able but sometimes we might need to face the truth or not giving them to much hope that later might be crushed over a deathbed. 

I am speaking from my experiences, I have a friend, a good friend of mine who was taken by spinal cancer. She was a cheeky person with big laugh. She never failed to make us rolling/cried with laughter even during her counting days. I know she's a strong person because a few months before her death, her father too died by cancer. She shared her chemo journey with us and always made side jokes like when she recovered, she'll have a boyfriend, she'll get any food she wants and how she hates cancer and wished this pain can f*ck off. And now what's left of her were stories of her journey embedded on her long inactive Instagram highlights. 

Before she left, I always knew the phrase "stay strong, you'll be fine" was never she wanted to hear because that phrase gave hope that we all knew it will never again exist. So instead, I told her I love her and wait for me to visit her. I visited her grave and said I'm sorry for being late. And another story of another victim of cancer was my classmate's father. My friend told us in the group chat to pray for his father and some of us responded with 'hope your father will get better soon' but he replied 'no, he won't get better soon' and we all know that he and his family were preparing to see his father leaving. I knew nobody what to hear that phrase as if like it's a future lie. 

And another one is my sister friend, she died of brain cancer/tumor that she never suspected. She was a good person, friendly with strong physique so we never thought she'll have tumor in her brain undetected. She died a few months after her sister died due to stomach complication, also undetected. And what makes me sad is that how are these 'stay strong', 'we can beat it', 'we are stronger than cancer' or 'Cancer is just a chapter in our lives and not the whole story' be something inspirational where there are no inspiration to begin with? I am not mad, but I think we should think for a better approach to include cancer patients so they don't feel alone.