When Nour Ali Shokry was diagnosed with Cancer 2 years ago. She didn’t feel there was any community in Egypt that supported cancer patients the way she felt was needed. From there, Nour Ali Shokry decided to start her own group on Facebook with the name Together We CANcer, in support of all cancer patients in Egypt. Ever since that moment, Together We CANcer has been providing mental, professional, and community support to numerous Cancer patients in Egypt. Together We CANcer contributes daily to destigmatizing Cancer in Egypt, while also managing to provide free of charge services and events to any cancer-impacted individuals.
Nour Ali Shokry’s work has been nothing short of extraordinary. She has been recognized by Facebook as one of the top 26 influential female social media leaders in the Middle East in #SheCreates 2021. Additionally, Together We Cancer Community has been recognized amongst the most impactful digital communities globally, taking part in Facebook’s Second Community Accelerator program in 2021.
We sat down with Nour Ali Shokry to know more!
Where did the idea for Together We CANncer Community come from?
When I started chemotherapy, I looked at my family and said I’ll start a group to support cancer patients. My mom smiled and said that I’m the one who needs the support and that I have to focus on myself.
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I made the group and I decided to include the name “Cancer” in it. So, I went for Together We CANcer, and the rest is history.
Tell us more about what WE CANcer Community offers for people who might not know it
In Together We CANcer, our mission is to create a safe environment for Cancer impacted people. Whether it’s a patient, a survivor, a doctor, or a family member of a cancer patient. We provide them with a safe environment.
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We tackle this through 3 aspects; the first thing is through knowledge. Also, we provide awareness and we help them connect with doctors and specialists. The second thing is psychological support. The third is day-in-day out events, posts, and reassurances that make a person feel that they can always talk, that they feel real.
Real here stands for respected, empathized with, accepted, and loved.
We also do a bimonthly event where people can come and attend and enjoy our events totally for free. The event is inclusive of everything; whether it’s workshops, talks by doctors and specialists, performances and entertainment as well. We also post job vacancies and we celebrate birthdays. It is a big community full of all sorts of things.
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Can people find therapists and psychologists through We Cancer?
What we really want to shed light on is that the cancer patient is not a mentally ill patient. He has psychological pressures, it doesn’t always require them to go to a psychologist. There is a recent branch in psychology, it’s called cancer coaching. It is like a life coach but dedicated to helping you through your cancer journey. There are 4 cancer coaches in Egypt. I’m one of them. When I got diagnosed I decided to get certified. Actually, I was approached by Intellect and they gave me an amazing scholarship. I went in and got my certificate, and this is where I started helping people and all my 3 other colleagues.
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We have a psychiatrist who is my own psychiatrist who helps me out too. We provide support on a scientific base. Our workshop in the middle east is called love is not selfish for cancer patients. It was inclusive of how to forgive yourself, how to forgive a person that came out of cancer, and how to accept the new person that came out of the cancer journey. It is about how to make peace with the fact that your life is not the same and so on.
How important was it for you to have that community in your healing journey and how important do you think it is for other people to have that as well?
God created us, it makes it easier if we felt that we’re not alone. This is the beauty of the community, that you’re not alone. When I was in the ad for 500500 I said that the goal of Together We CANcer is that no one would be alone. I don’t want anyone to feel that they’re the only ones who had their hair or eyelashes fall, or that they’re the only people who vomit. That they’re the only ones affected by Chemo.
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You’re not alone in this and more importantly, it will pass.
What are some of the misconceptions that you don’t like when it comes to Cancer?
The first and biggest misconception is that people call it “the bad disease”. I don’t think that cancer is the only bad disease. There is MS and all the autoimmune diseases, there is Covid. All diseases are bad, there is no good or bad disease. The second misconception is that the cure is deadly. This is also not true, chemotherapy is very hard but it’s not poison. It’s a cure. As long as we find out early and we’re not scared, the easier the treatment gets. The more scared we get, the harder and longer the treatment is.
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Another misconception, I would say that 80% of our community hates the word fighter. They hate the word battle. We leave when our time is up, whether it’s cancer, or covid, or whether we went to sleep and never woke up. I am not a fighter, don’t put that expectation on me.
What about my friends who passed away? Did they fight less?
It’s a battle that I don’t want, that I didn’t ask for. So you’re putting on me pressure that I don’t want. When we deal with things normally and casually, easiness tends to follow. Of course, there will be some tweaks and a little bit of sensitivity, but we don’t have to say or do too much. When you’re overly empathetic, it puts a lot of pressure.
What were some of the challenges you’ve faced? And how did you overcome them?
The main challenge is that the cancer patient in Egypt is a silent patient in general. They’re always scared to talk or to be labeled. So to have them speak, you have to walk the talk yourself. This is why I am very open about my journey so other people can be open about their own.
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The second thing is the inclusion of males. We raise men to not share or talk about their feelings. They can’t cry, and they can’t show their weakness. We have males in our community, but they’re not as active as the females because they don’t want to express their feelings. That was another challenge that we managed to solve. We now have men who talk and share, but it took me two years to make them comfortable enough to talk.
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Another challenge would be that I want to reach a lot of people who are not on Facebook. Unfortunately, most people who have cancer come from modest backgrounds, financially and educationally. So, reaching them, it’s not easy. It’s not easy to change their mindset about the disease. The destigmatization that I am doing is not easy. However, I am working on it step by step. I am trying to change conceptions. We’re all trying.
Besides having a community, what are the factors that help a cancer patient?
As I said, of course, a supportive community. Good medical insurance and that’s something Egypt is doing already. They have started in Egypt’s Women’s Health Initiative in treating cancer. The country is heading in an amazing direction. Treatments are becoming more available and accessible. We need to raise awareness on what to say and what not to say.
We need to reinforce the idea that early detection saves lives. The cancer patient will have so much better chances.
What are your future goals and plans for We Cancer Community?
I would absolutely love to make Together We CANcer an NGO. I want all the workshops that I do for my people to be done for everyone everywhere. It would be great if Together We CANcer were to go to government hospitals to help the patients because they always need it more.
I want people’s mindsets to change and many people to help. All the work should not only be on Together We CANcer. Everything I do is completely free. I convince people and they come. But until when will I be able to sustain something like that? I want to collaborate with organizations and ministries.
I want the Labor Law to change, especially in the private sector, because a lot of people get scared to say they have cancer because they don’t want to get laid off. That’s something I have personally been through.
I want things to change
You can join Together We CANcer here because you are not alone!