"During the course of my research, I have interviewed many teenagers and young adults with cancer about their illness experience", says Anne Grinyer from the Institute for Health Research at Lancaster University. "In my paper, I use their accounts to show how specialist services for this age group can do much to improve the experience of patients, and importantly, why this age group is different from any other."
An example given by Dr Grinyer is how young people with cancer can experience discrimination and stigma. Some told stories of being taunted or abused in public by passers-by about their appearance in ways that they felt would not happen to a younger child or an older adult. Hair loss was sometimes seen by casual observers as a threatening statement or as symbolic of a defiant youth culture, and young people with cancer reported being refused entry to clubs. The 'no head covering' policy of some clubs applied to the bandanas worn to cover baldness. The distress at hair loss applied equally to boys and girls, though each gender assumed the other had it easier. Ends
For further information or to speak to the authors, editor or some of the individuals highlighted in the case studies, please contact:
Juliet Upton SAGE +44 (0)7811 440918 [email protected]
Notes for Editors 1. This special issue of Chronic Illness is available free online until the end of March 2008. Please go to: http://chi.sagepub.com/
2. SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, and Singapore. http://www.sagepub.co.uk.
3. Chronic Illness provides a forum in which researchers from a wide range of disciplines, clinicians, policy makers, and people living with chronic illness come together to clarify the common principles underlying the experience and management of chronic illness.
Specifically, it: A. Publishes high quality original research; B. Informs practices and policies in relation to chronic illness; C Provides rigorous insight into the experiences of people living with long term medical conditions.