At the age of aged 53 years, President of Cancer Support France
(CSF) Sud de France (11, 09, 66). Jeff Turner finally lost his
battle for life on Monday 6th July at Carcassonne
hospital, after a courageous fight against cancer.
Jeff’s positive attitude and his determination to
beat his illness were an inspiration to other cancer
sufferers and everyone else who knew him. Even in
the last few days of his life, Jeff was providing support
and encouragement to others.

His wife, Hazel, writes……..

Dear all,
Certainly some of the problems that Jeff and I encountered during his treatment related to language difficulties (doctors and nurses who didn’t speak English, problems translating copies of letters to find out what was going on etc), lack of information on the disease or it’s treatment and lack of discussion or information on the decision making, side effects of chemo etc. Having said that, the treatment was excellent.
Cancer Support France is currently carrying out a survey to look at the language and communication needs of English-speaking cancer patients being treated in France.
If you have been treated for cancer in France it would be very helpful if you could complete the survey. If you know someone else who has been treated, I would be grateful if you could forward this E-mail to them and ask if they could complete the survey. The more responses, the more valid the survay and the better informed we will be about what to do next.
Thank you for your help
Hazel Turner
President – CSF Sud de France

I am writing to invite you to help Cancer Support France with an exciting and innovative piece of research designed to help the asociation establish the needs that exist amongst English-speaking people who have been or are affected by cancer in France. You can do this by:

1. Completing the survey yourself if you have been or are being treated for cancer
2. Forwarding the information to someone you know who has and who would like to help
3. Forwarding the information to your own ex-pat networks.

The details of the survey and the access link are given below. To maintain complete confidentiality, a special e-mail address is also given below should you have any queries about the project. An initial report will be given at the association’s annual general meeting in March.

3 CSF Project 2009/2010 3

Establishing Linguistic needs of English-speaking people affected by cancer in France

A professionally designed and managed survey to help CSF establish the language help needs of English-speaking cancer patients in France is now available on line. Former cancer patients, current patients and their families are all invited to contribute to this unique and very valuable piece of research.

The survey consists of a short set of questions and will not take long to complete. The results will help Cancer Support France develop better services for English-speaking patients with cancer. This may include, in the first place, translations of documents currently only available in French that can help patients get more out of the French health service as they embark on treatment.

It is stressed that the complete process, including your input to the questionnaire is confidential. You are not required you to give your name. However, if you wish to provide your contact details for possible follow up, there is space at the end of the questionnaire to do so.

The survey will be open until the end of February. You can access the survey [here-> http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/196811/csf-survey]

If you have any queries about the survey, please contact [csf-survey@sainte-foy.org->csf-survey@sainte-foy.org]

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Linda Shepherd.

President CSF-National
Cancer Support France
Animé par les anglophones pour les anglophones

Mairie, Le Bourg 16350 Benest
[www.cancersupportfrance.info->www.cancersupportfrance.info]
Parrainée par le Professeur Alain Daban, consultant, service d’Oncologie Radiothérapique du CHU de Poitiers; Président du Réseau Onco-Poitou-Charentes