It’s time for some Honest Talk about how we’re feeling
By Kathryn Perry, Lymphoma Coalition Head of Communications & Information
This year marks the 20th anniversary of World Lymphoma Awareness Day - WLAD which is over two decades of raising a lot of awareness about lymphomas and the needs of patients and caregivers. This year Lymphoma Coalition focused on the emotional effects of living with lymphoma and the campaign theme for WLAD is "Honest Talk: It’s time to get honest about how we're feeling". Honest conversations between people with lymphoma and their healthcare team can help address any emotional concerns and connect patients to specialists and resources.
Lymphoma Coalition is encouraging individuals to download the Honest Talk Conversation Starter, here. If having the conversation feels awkward, the Honest Talk postcard can be shared with healthcare teams or others to help open a dialogue and address concerns.
The truth is living with lymphomas and CLL can be hard and affects how people are feeling. According to the most recent Global Patient Survey on Lymphomas & CLL (2024), two-thirds of people diagnosed with lymphoma (67%) said in the past six months, they had experienced emotional effects related to lymphoma including:
- Fear of cancer relapse or progression: 46%
- Anxiety: 35%
- Depression: 27%
- Isolation: 20%
People diagnosed with lymphomas and CLL are not talking to medical teams about how they are feeling, according to the Global Patient Survey (2024):
- 30% of people experiencing depression didn’t speak to their doctor
- 28% of people experiencing anxiety didn’t speak to their doctor
- 27% of people with fear of recurrence and fear of progression didn’t speak to their doctor
The Global Patient Survey (2024) also showed that most caregivers (91%) had experienced emotional effects in the past 6 months related to their loved one’s lymphoma.