Post Treatment Nutrition Workshop

What you eat plays a vital role in how you feel after cancer treatment. But with so much nutrition advice out there, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. What foods support healing? How do you improve energy levels? Can nutrition help prevent deficiencies and support immune function? Join us to answer many common questions about nutrition and cancer.

This workshop is available ONLINE

It is led by one of our expert nutritionists and delivered over Zoom. It lasts for approximately an hour and 15 minutes.

Post-Treatment Cancer support

Whether you are experiencing late effects from treatment, you are concerned about preventing recurrence or you’re managing the transition from intensive support and monitoring back to care by your family doctor or general practitioner, we are here for you. 

Register for our next workshop

Who should attend this workshop?

• Individuals who are post-treatment and interested in nutrition during and after cancer treatment.
• Anyone interested in nutrition relating to cancer wherever people are in their cancer continuum.

Shaving & Men’s Skincare Workshop

Physical side effects sometimes catch us by surprise. Cancer treatment can bring unexpected changes to your appearance—dry, discoloured skin, hair loss, irritation from shaving, nail changes — but that doesn’t mean you have to just put up with them.

Who is the Shaving & Men’s Skincare workshop for?

This session is ideal for: 

• Men who are currently undergoing cancer treatment or have completed treatment in the past year
• Anyone facing cancer who would like support around these specific appearance-related side effects

Maybe you didn’t sign up for this workshop…

and someone who cares about you did it on your behalf. You’re not alone. If you’re here because a loved one suggested it, take that as a sign of their support.

Bras & Prostheses Workshop

Whether you’ve recently had a mastectomy, lumpectomy, or breast reconstruction—or are still exploring your options—you may be wondering what comes next. How will your body change? What will feel comfortable? Join us to learn about breast prostheses, bras, post-surgical garments, swimsuits and more.

The Bras & Prostheses workshop is available ONLINE

The ONLINE Bras & Prostheses workshop is one hour long and is delivered via Zoom by one of our expert volunteers who have industry experience or formal training on post-mastectomy bras, other post-op garments, and breast prostheses.

Who should attend this workshop?

Anyone affected by breast cancer who wants information about breast prostheses, breast forms, post-op garments and what to expect before, during or after breast cancer surgery and/or treatment.  

I’ll never forget my first interaction with Look Good Feel Better (LGFB). It was about 20 years ago, when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Going to the LGFB workshop was my best day at the cancer centre. Most of my time there wasn’t cheerful or enjoyable, but my experience with LGFB was just lovely. The people were so kind and helpful, and it was great fun. I look back on it fondly. 

I got diagnosed with cancer again last year. This time it was what doctors called a “complex case”: three distinct cancers – endometrial, ovarian, and fallopian – in three different places. 

One of the first things I did was to connect with LGFB again and sign up for a workshop. Getting to attend the workshop again, after all these years, was a shiny, happy moment in my cancer journey. Who knew that chemotherapy could include highlights? It was the same supportive experience with people who were genuinely interested in helping me feel my best. I loved how they now provide a helpful booklet with makeup tips, so I didn’t have to take notes during the workshop. 

The workshop isn’t really about makeup or skincare for me, though. It’s about the opportunity to chat with other people going through the same experience. And to have a good time – for example, everyone had a good giggle with some of the ladies modelling their wigs and making wonderful faces in the mirror. Sometimes, we just need a day where we’re thinking about nothing other than having fun. There’s no other agenda. It was so helpful in terms of my spirit – just enhancing my mood and joy. It’s more beneficial than therapy or a self-help group for me. LGFB cultivates such a supportive, uplifting environment. It was a very restorative afternoon – such a gift, truly. Whoever came up with this idea deserves immense credit. 

Cancer and its treatment affect us all so differently. They can tell you what to expect during chemotherapy, but you never really know what’s coming your way until it’s there. It’s the same way with how cancer treatment’s side effects impact our appearance and self-esteem – it’s so individual. We may respond with acknowledgement or disbelief or rejection or anger. There’s a plethora of possible responses. 

In a way, I think it comes down to your willingness to accept your own reality. My personal attitude is one of total acceptance. “It is what it is” – that’s my mantra. I look at whatever’s happening in my life – cancer treatment, or a broken shoelace, or a scenario in one of my past careers in education and social work – and I assess what’s going on and how to deal with it. How best can I move forward? What’s my next step? What’s the most useful and functional response to a situation? Is there a possibility to enhance the situation, to make it better? 

That approach has served me well in life, and it’s serving me well now. I change the things I can change, and accept the things I can’t. I like to be realistic about what’s possible. 

These days, I’m looking forward to what’s next. I’ve finished my treatment and I’m enjoying being retired. I love to make art – I also teach watercolour classes – and to spend time with my grandchildren. I’m looking forward to getting back to travelling, and specifically to going on a cruise. I just want to be on a ship somewhere warm. I love cruising, it’s my favourite thing. No cooking, no cleaning, just art classes, ocean air, and leisurely afternoon naps. And if I can’t be on a ship just yet, I’ll take an afternoon like the one LGFB gave me any day – one with kindness, laughter, and light.

Advanced Skincare Workshop

Advances in cancer treatment have led to more people experiencing skin-related side effects, both during and after treatment. In this workshop, expert Onco-Dermatologists share simple steps to help minimize and manage common skin and nail issues.

This workshop is available Online

Join us!

• This workshop delivered via a Q&A with our medical professional, and is offered approximately four times a year.
• It is roughly an hour and fifteen (1:15) minutes in length and is delivered over Zoom.
• Be sure to add your questions on the registration form!

Register Today!

 

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop is available for anyone who is…

• Currently in treatment
• Post-treatment but may still be experiencing side-effects impacting their skin, scalp, or nails
• This workshop is designed to address skin concerns wherever people are in their cancer continuum

Skincare, Makeup, & Hair Workshop

Discover practical ways to manage the physical side effects of cancer treatment on your skin, hair, and face, including skincare, makeup, hair loss, wigs and other head coverings. Connect with a community who gets it.

This workshop is available IN-PERSON.

IN-PERSON

• The IN-PERSON workshop is 2 hours long.
• Called Skincare, Makeup & Hair, it combines both our Skincare & Makeup and our Wigs & Hair Alternatives workshops.

• In-person workshops are only available in select locations around Canada. 

Workshop and Location Finder

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop is available to anyone who is about to start cancer treatment, is currently in treatment, or has completed treatment in the last 12 months and would like information about or support around this topic.

The Confidence Kit

Participants in the Skincare & Cosmetics workshop receive a free kit of skincare and makeup products.

These products are generously donated to Look Good Feel Better and meet the regulations set forth by Health Canada.

These products are for educational purposes, so you may practice the techniques explained in the workshop.

• You will receive the kit in the workshop.

Wigs & Scarves Workshop

Losing your hair during cancer treatment can be emotional and overwhelming. Learn about what to expect with hair loss, how to care for your scalp during and after treatment, all about wigs and other hair alternatives, including scarf-tying techniques.

This workshop is available ONLINE and IN-PERSON

Online Workshop

• The ONLINE workshop is ONE HOUR long and is delivered via Zoom.
• Relax and join us from the comfort of your home.

 

I’m ready to register!

In-person Workshop

• The IN-PERSON workshop is 2 HOURS long and is called Skincare, Makeup & Hair.
• It combines our Wigs & Scarves and our Skincare & Makeup Workshops into a single 2-hour session.
• The in-person workshop is only available in select locations around Canada.

 

Find a workshop location

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop is available to anyone who is about to start cancer treatment, is currently in treatment or has completed treatment in the last 12 months and would like information about or support around hair loss, wigs, and other hair alternatives.

By Adriana Lombardo

Let me be blunt with you. These past few months have been crap – to put it politely.

Only now is it hitting me: Survivor’s Guilt.

Why did I survive a deadly disease while I had to bury people I’ve met along the way?

Why am I finding it so difficult to move forward with my life without feeling extremely guilty?

This sucks!

I knew this feeling may come. I’d heard of survivor’s guilt and was aware of the emotions I had yet to face, but to be honest with you, I had started living and actually enjoying life without having to worry about appointments, etc, that I didn’t think it was going to happen.

I thought I was one of the lucky ones who wouldn’t go through it – who am I kidding. 

As sad as this may be, or as weird as it may come across, I miss having cancer.

Weird, huh?

Who would ever say such words?

Let me explain:

Life was easier when I was sick; at least it seemed to be.

I didn’t have much to worry about other than chemo, appointments, procedures, if the cancer was going to kill me or not, you know, the usual “cancer stuff.”

Now that I’m back “in the real world,” I find myself struggling to accept that chapter has now closed.

It was two-plus long years of fighting and not having any worries about anything other than me.

I’ve moved on, almost as if nothing ever happened, but I find myself holding onto anger and pain and all these other emotions that I have never accepted until now.

I smiled all throughout my treatment – a genuine smile – but now I find I’m faking one to show people that I’m still alright.

How do you explain to people that while going through cancer I was genuinely doing fine, but now I feel as if I’m not?

I know it’s not up to me to explain this to anyone but that’s the thing about society – once you’ve gone through any sort of heartache, they expect you to pick up and keep going without actually acknowledging what you’ve gone through.

But that’s just it: once you’re “healed” or “cured”, people stop asking how you are because they assume everything is alright. That you’re “back to normal”.

I’m still trying to figure out my new normal while juggling these emotions.

It saddens me to know I had to remove my rose-coloured glasses at such a young age and that the benefit of the doubt doesn’t really exist once you’ve gone through cancer.

You see things and people for what and who they really are.

Anger and frustration followed.

Like I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of emotions that I’m battling now with Survivor’s Guilt.    

It’s a matter of finding a balance between not letting go and moving forward.  

I’m going to challenge myself for the next month. My goal is not to have it all figured out, but to accept what I’m feeling and just let myself feel it.

No one will ever have it figured out, so why should I?

I’m not sure that I’ll figure out why I’m feeling the way that I do, but I do owe myself ways of figuring out how to deal with it.

It’s going to be challenging but I’m going to learn to love myself all over again for the sake of my mental health and wellbeing.

I was a new translator for Look Good Feel Better when I was offered the chance to attend a workshop to see for myself how a session was run.

I had already translated a number of testimonials from people who’d experienced a workshop, and what always stood out was the warm welcome from the volunteers, their expertise and their respect for the participants. Some mentioned how, once the workshop had begun, apprehensions disappeared and were replaced by joy—a feeling not always present during cancer. Others said that being surrounded by people going through the same experience as them gave them much-needed moral support, without realising it. For others still, the workshop was energising, as it broke the social isolation caused by the almost daily medical appointments, the omnipresent fear during the ordeal, the gruelling treatments, and the exhaustion that overtook them as time went by.

The testimonials echoed the scale of the challenges a person needs to overcome during cancer. However, when I attended a workshop, I was able to see another side of the story: the volunteers, like fairies, were busy preparing the room with care and rigour. Sure moves, no doubt performed a thousand times before, were carried out with enthusiasm and team spirit; we weren’t welcoming the Queen of England, but it just seemed the same! It was beautiful, it was real. Most of them had already done a full day’s work for their employer, but these specialists in make-up, skin care or hair prostheses had chosen to commit themselves to their community out of generosity and solidarity. The women who were about to come forward were in great need of the expertise of these volunteer specialists, and they understood this.

I took a seat at a table and, as soon as the first participants arrived, I saw the magic happen. The volunteers knew how to read the participants: the welcome was both friendly and respectful, never intrusive; everyone had their own space, depending on whether they were more reserved or more open.

These women who had come that evening to learn how to look ‘normal’ again, even though nothing in their lives was normal at the time, these women who had chosen to leave their homes in spite of great fatigue, unpredictable nausea or a morale that wasn’t always up to scratch, found themselves gathered in this room for (essentially) the same reasons: the desire to take back control of their lives, against all odds. They were going to discover make-up tips and tricks to redraw their lost eyebrows, to restore their complexion, to take care of their dull skin and their nails damaged by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. And perhaps they would be tempted to try on a wig to camouflage a now bald head, or a scarf that they’ll learn to wear in a variety of clever ways.

From that evening in February, I remember the spirit of sisterhood that springs naturally from a Look Good Feel Better workshop: women helping other women they don’t know, whom they may never see again. In time, some of them may forget the names of the others, these angels who were there for them for an evening; but the warmth of their exchanges will remain with them forever. As the American novelist and poet Maya Angelou put it so well: ‘People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel’. For a few hours, the volunteers and participants will have been cosmic sisters, sisters of the heart. For a few hours, they will have shared a complicity and a friendship that normally takes years to develop between two people, through living side by side and sharing life experiences. That’s the power of a Look Good Feel Better workshop.

When I was offered the job of translating content for Look Good Feel Better, I hesitated at first. I felt uneasy. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, or even if I could, write about such a difficult subject—women affected by a serious illness that often leads to harsh treatment. I’d had breast cancer a year earlier and, a few years later, would be overcoming a second one that would require even tougher treatments. I finally agreed, but gave myself the right to withdraw if the experience proved too harsh. Then I realised that this mission to look good and feel better was a regular (and happy) reminder that human nature is fundamentally good. In fact, during the second cancer, I only kept Look Good Feel Better as a client. I insisted on continuing this work, because the stories and testimonials had a calming effect on me. Look Good Feel Better reminded me every day that I wasn’t alone. And everything is so much sweeter when you don’t feel alone, isn’t it?