‘Text me healthy’ campaign for NWT women after cancer treatment

Adult women who have finished active cancer treatment in the past decade are invited to sign up for a pilot text-message program.

The NWT Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group says it has partnered with the University of Sydney, Australia to develop a free text messaging program that helps people manage their health after cancer.

Text Me Healthy will provide “support, reliable information, and advice through text messages in topic areas such as mental health, physical activity, healthy eating and general well-being,” the cancer action group said in a press release.

The program’s target audience is adult woman who have finished treatment for lung, breast, cervical, ovarian or colorectal cancer in the past 10 years.

Rosanna Strong, one of the group’s board members and a cancer survivor, told Cabin Radio: “You get lots of support and everybody’s around you when you’re doing your treatments. Then, when you’re finished it, it feels like everybody’s going, ‘Oh, we’re done and we move on.’ But there are still lingering effects, both mentally and physically, from dealing with treatments.

“We don’t have supportive services for people post-treatments here in the North. We thought this was a valuable opportunity to see if this program works.”

Strong said people who sign up for the pilot can expect three to four messages a week “from mental and physical health to dealing with side effects from all the treatments and specific messages related to cancer,” for the duration of the three-month trial.

To sign up, email the NWT Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group.

Cancer still “occupies a good portion of my brain,” Strong said.

“When you do your annual checkups, it all comes flooding back because you have to repeat your history to every medical professional that you deal with.

“It doesn’t go away. This is why I think this program is so important. It would have been great to have a program like this when I finished my treatments to guide me through some of the mental and physical things that I’ve experienced.”