Updated October 12th, 2020

My Life Depends on Social Distancing– An Ovarian Cancer Patient’s Plea

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For cancer patients, the coronavirus means more than just shelter-in-place.

Rachel Bradbury, a 41-year old ovarian cancer patient in Houston, Texas, penned an open letter in Women’s Health about how her life and daily routine has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. According to Bradbury, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and breast cancer in 2016, but went into remission after thirteen months of treatment. However, her ovarian cancer returned a year and a half later and had spread to other parts of her body.

“Because my cancer was metastatic (meaning it had spread to other parts of my body), it was terminal,” Bradbury wrote in Women’s Health. “This meant I could still continue treatment to potentially live longer, but in the end, my cancer was not curable.”

Bradbury went on to write about changes in her daily routine because of Covid-19, which included taking care of her kids and volunteering at MD Anderson Cancer Center and nonprofit Ovarcome as a cancer advocate. Bradbury’s diagnosis makes her especially vulnerable to coronavirus, so she and her family are practicing strict social distancing.

“Honestly, social distancing sucks for me, too,” Bradbury writes. “We don't have anyone over to our house except my mom, and she has to take off her shoes at the door and wash her hands right away. I can't go on walks with my friends anymore, and we've reduced our contact to texting and social media. My Pilates classes (which I used to attend religiously three days a week) are now an impossibility. I just can't take any chances with my immune system.”

Bradbury finishes the letter by encouraging everyone to take social distancing seriously, and writes that if people must go outside, they should donate blood due to serious shortages.

“The truth is, there are people whose lives depend on social distancing,” Bradbury writes. “I truly cannot survive without it.”

The Importance Of Cancer Patients Social Distancing During Coronavirus

For cancer patients, social distancing is key for cancer patients during Covid-19, as their immune systems may be weakened by chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

“The general guidance right now is that for your safety and the of your loved ones and entire community, we would really encourage you to stay home and practice social distancing as much as possible,” Dr. Brieze Keeley Bell, an attending physician at UCSF Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet.

In order to stay healthy during the outbreak, The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released a new set of recommendations for cancer patient care during Covid-19, which involves decreasing hospital visits, rescheduling elective surgeries, and practicing basic hygiene such as regular hand washing.

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