Queensland Support Services

Cancer Council Queensland Helpline

Our Helpline 13 11 20 is a confidential telephone information and support service. For the cost of a local call from anywhere in Australia, specialist cancer nurses can answer questions about any aspect of cancer, including:

• How to prevent cancer or find it early
• How to cope with treatment and its side effects

They can also:

• Send information resources
• Put callers in touch with services in their local area
• Offer emotional support to cancer patients, their families and carers

Cancer Council Queensland services/programs for women with breast cancer

Practical assistance available through the Cancer Council Queensland:

• The Cancer Counselling Service is a free, confidential telephone counselling service available to people distressed by cancer. Referrals to the service can be made through the Cancer Helpline.
  
  
• Cancer Connect is a service where people are put in contact with a trained volunteer to speak to someone who has had a similar experience with cancer. Volunteers are cancer survivors themselves, or the carer of a cancer patient, or a parent of a child with cancer.
  
  
• Breast Cancer Support Service - volunteers with a personal experience of breast cancer provide a model of hope through the provision of emotional and social support at the time of initial diagnosis of breast cancer.
  
  
• Financial Assistance Program - can assist with women who require breast prosthesis.
  
  
• Wig and turban service for patients who lose their hair during cancer treatment.

Education and Group Programs

• Breast Cancer Matters - an information and support program for women who have a diagnosis of breast cancer. The program addresses key issues of interest to women affected by breast cancer including treatments, adjusting to a cancer diagnosis, lymphoedema and early menopause.
  
  
• Look Good...Feel Better program for women - Helping women face cancer with confidence. Workshops are completely free of charge and are available to women undergoing or about to undergo chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy treatment for cancer.
  
  
• Young Women’s Network – is available to younger women with a breast cancer diagnosis offering information and support through individual or group meetings.

Information about Cancer

Booklets, pamphlets, videos and DVDs about cancer and its treatment are available to Queenslanders through the Cancer Helpline. Information is also available on travelling to major treatment centres and ways to cope with a cancer diagnosis.

Information on any of the Cancer Council Queensland's programs and services is available by contacting the Cancer Helpline on 13 11 20 or by visiting the website at www.cancerqld.org.au

© 2008 Cancer Council