The cycle is repeated for about ten or fifteen minutes, two or three times a day as noted above. Other meaningful life therapy activities include a year-end party, a marathon event, the exhibition of arts and crafts each spring and fall, various lectures, a summer camp, educational events for health professionals, a clearinghouse for phone and mail contacts among cancer patients, media coverage of the potential and problems of cancer patients, and a variety of opportunities for cancer patients to get together and learn about constructive living in spite of their illnesses. The values underlying this approach to cancer treatment are worth consideration. They include a value that illness brings some loss but also some possibility of gain. The compacted life of the terminally ill patient can be rich and constructive just because of the knowledge of approaching death.
Special insights become possible.
Standards and priorities can be reassessed. Another value involves fighting with the illness. One may be a patient, but one need not be a victim defeated by the cancer. While accepting the reality of themselves with their fears and limits, the patients continue to do battle with their illness. They are encouraged to make efforts not to be defeated by their illness.