When a person learns about their cancer diagnosis, a lot of questions and feelings that shake both the individual and their relatives arise. Such intense emotions can be overwhelming for the individual, so their thinking, behaviour and decisions may seem quite confusing. However, during the times of emotional stress, rational assessment of the situation and the search for possible actions gradually appear. The goal of the master's thesis is to understand what oncological patients experience in relation to their family members. The aim of the thesis is to describe the emotional conditions that patients experience, their body sensations, how they are dealing with the disease, and how they experience their loved ones. Using the qualitative method and the phenomenological approach, seven semi-structured interviews with participants who had an experience with cancer were conducted. The interviews were conducted between 2016 and 2018, and include six women and one man. Participants claim that acceptance of the cancer diagnosis was very difficult for them, and report feeling denial, sadness, guilt, anger, aggression, and despair. Some interviewees describe helplessness, especially that of their family members, which was the most difficult aspect of the entire treatment process for the patient. The interviewees state that their life became meaningful after completing the treatment. Deeper feelings of gratitude developed. Despite similar answers we, however, cannot generalize; while it is possible that the feelings described by the participants may also be present in other oncological patients, it is necessary to understand that the number of participants in our research is very small.
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