Wig Swap

So I am thinking of starting a cancer patients’ Wig Swap Group in Vietnam. The idea of the “Wig Swap” Support group is borrowed from The Chiang Mai Initiative’s Currency Swap: as most of cancer patients have to experience a period of hair loss due to treatments, wigs become part of their daily life. Wig exchanges can be useful, and fun - as people usually do not have a collection of wigs on their own, and it can be boring wearing just one over and over again. We can even have Wig parties where cancer patients can freely interact with one another and exchange wigs right on the spot. Oh, of course they can exchange whatever else they want: a phone number, a hug, a kiss, and even more than that…

OK. Let’s be more serious here. The Wig Swap Group is just a fun version of the Cancer Support Group that I am thinking of starting in Vietnam. Cancer has become the country’s new epidemic: everyone in Vietnam knows someone with cancer, whether it is a family member, or friend, or a friend of a friend. The sad thing, however, is that besides the lack of good quality cancer care, the idea of a support group for cancer patients is rather new in Vietnam, and in fact there is no such group formed yet. I saw hundreds of cancer patients waiting inside the National Cancer Center (K Hospital) with despair, and yet having no one to share their experience. I was one of them, but I am luckier than them: I am having a world-class treatment at an American hospital in Singapore. And apparently they have quite a few proactive cancer support groups here in this small island which can be a great model for Vietnam.

My goals in setting up a Cancer Support Group in Vietnam are not only to provide cancer patients and their families with information about cancer and cancer treatment (what to expect when you undergo certain treatments for example) but to provide a forum where they can talk about their pains, fears and hopes with people who have the same experience. I understand that it will not be easy: most people will not be willing to share their feelings with a complete stranger. Especially when it is a poor old lady from the countryside who has to share a hospital bed with 3 other people versus a rather wealthy young man who has money to bribe the hospital staff to get a private room in the hospital. But they have one important thing in common: they both are fighting their final battle against the Death Angel.