The Power of the Buddy System in Cancer Care: A Story of Strength and Support

“The happy voices in the hallway sounded strange in the area where I was sitting, the waiting room of the oncology department,” says Femke. It was early 2017, she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. “The voices came closer and I saw a beautiful couple, the woman had a cap on. Despite the cancer, this woman radiated strength. So you could be sick, but you could also be in the middle of life.”

Femke wanted that too and she expressed her wish to Annemiek Doeksen, the oncological surgeon who treated her. She immediately knew who she was talking about and asked the woman if she was open to a conversation. “Hester and I talked for an hour and we could write a book from the app contact we had afterwards.”

‘She should know’

It’s nice to have a buddy in a time when everything is uncertain, Femke continues. “For example, my husband had read that walking during the chemo period is good. I thought: good for you, but you don’t know how it feels, how tired I am. Hester texted: I never felt like it either, but by walking I felt better. Such a message motivates, because she should know.”

The women text about bright red apple cheeks after a certain medication, checkpoints, they encourage each other. “The contact was very valuable. I told other women about it and more patients wanted a buddy. Within a year we had 150 registrations.”

Intelligent matchingsysteem

There are now about a thousand buddies within the St. Antonius Hospital in Utrecht, where Femke was being treated. We have been asked to scale up to other departments. “Like a buddy system for children with diabetes and for parents whose children are in neonatal intensive care.”

What started in 2019 with an Excel list full of names has now become a system with intelligent matchmaking behind it. “Everything has been taken into account: privacy legislation, but also the wishes and needs of the patient. One has a specific question about a treatment choice that needs to be made, the other needs several conversations during the treatment.”

Additional care

The Buddyhuis system is implemented in hospitals and is therefore also organized by the hospitals. Four hospitals currently use this system.

Annemiek Doeksen is the oncological surgeon who introduced Femke to her buddy Hester. She is a big supporter of the buddy system. “As a doctor you mainly look at the medical content process, you want a treatment to work as well as possible. But with breast cancer, patients face a lot more than what a doctor can help with. The buddies provide each other with a piece of care that is additional is on the care we provide.”

‘Don’t just cry’

“It’s really not just crying out. They empower each other, sometimes go for a walk together and bring a lot of positivity,” says Annemiek. According to the doctor, this is very necessary during the heavy treatment process. “The disease happens to you, then you just have to wait and see what you have to do. The conversations with the buddies give you a bit of autonomy back. A perspective from someone who has gone through the same thing. Who looks like you and has hair again, a job , maybe children. This shows you: I can get out of here.”

In the hospital in Utrecht, the buddy system has become a community. Young mothers with breast cancer meet together, recently a group of African women with a Muslim background were linked together. The buddies are also involved in choices made by the hospital. “We recently asked a number of former patients whether a diagnosis can be given within 24 hours or 48 hours. As a hospital, we sometimes have a blind spot for how we have organized things.”

The buddy system is not only valuable for the patient who is now ill, but also for those who have already gone through the process. “Many patients who are better again, fall into a hole after a year full of treatments and checks. They have to pick up their lives again, go out into the outside world again. That can be quite exciting. If you can do something for another patient, it is that is not only very valuable, it also helps with your own processing. We had not thought of that in advance.”