Creatively coping

Those of us with cancer learn to creatively cope with our ailments. I took up knitting and crocheting after being told by a friend that I needed a hobby during chemo. I have made more scarves but have not progressed to anything more complicated but not for the lack of trying. Other people are much more talented than I. One of them is an online friend, Ria Vanden Eynde, an artist with a blog and a website and now an art show in Florida.


I 'met' Ria a few years ago after she was looking to find people who had the same cancers as she did - thyroid and breast cancer. She lives in Belgium so I have never actually met her. We have communicated online through online communities, our blogs and Facebook. I find her work intriguing. She was diagnosed 9 months apart so had a double whammy of a cancer diagnosis. I have met a few people with thyroid cancer over the years and many women with breast cancer. But she is the only person I know who has had the same two cancers as me. We may be small in number but we are mighty!

If I was in Florida I would try to go to her show which opens today. She has found a creative outlet to express her coping with two cancers. Now she is helping others with her art. At the show, she will donate $40 for each print she sells to My Hope Chest which is a non profit helping uninsured women with the costs of reconstruction surgery.

She is to be applauded for taking this step to help others and give back. It is this kind of effort to take ones traumas and turn them into something that helps others that is important. More people should do this. If you are any where near St Petersburg, please stop by the eve-N-odd gallery and check out the art and maybe buy a print so you can help Ria help others.