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Abstract
Historically, cancer survivorship has been reserved as a term for those who lived five years or longer after being deemed without signs of cancer. Now the term survivor is used from diagnosis through the balance of a person's life. The dominant cultural representation of a breast cancer survivor is one of a triumphant, happy, healthy and feminine woman holding a place of honor in the cancer world. Women are expected to share their experience and present an optimistic picture of the outcome of treatment. The literature is replete with information about the various aspects of being a breast cancer survivor. The cultural expectations related to breast cancer survivorship may or may not be congruent with a woman's perceptions or needs, especially when disease and its treatment may involve late and long-term effects that are unexpected and often under estimated. Few studies have explored the long-term effects of breast cancer on women's self-understanding and even fewer have focused on the experiences of rural women.
This interpretive phenomenological study explored the long shadow of living with breast cancer and meanings ascribed to the experience of breast cancer, and described the impact of the long-term effects on those meanings. Fifteen rural women who had been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer five or more years ago were recruited via purposive sampling. Three interviews conducted two to four weeks apart revealed that women respond to the survivorship persona in different ways and to varying degrees. The post-treatment phase of breast cancer is a process involving corporeal concerns, relationships, and uncertainty. Previous experiences and co-morbidities affected the meanings ascribed to the breast cancer experience and the degree women took up the survivor image. The women felt the illness revealed the fragility of life and they desired to live a purposeful life that was more than being a breast cancer survivor.
