Kirsten Mortenson’s life was irrevocably changed three weeks before her first quarter at Cal Poly when her father was diagnosed with stage-four kidney cancer. Mortenson, now an environmental management and protection senior, said she was left to battle not only typical homesickness, but also the shock of having a family member contract a serious illness.
“People normally go through homesickness their freshman year, but I had something added to that,” Mortenson said. “It took me a while to be able to rely on other people, to make strong enough connections.”
Mortenson’s own struggle led her to creating a cancer support group for Cal Poly students dealing with someone close to them being diagnosed with cancer. The support group is open to any student who, like Mortenson, is affected by a friend or family member’s illness and needs someone to turn to, Mortenson said.
Mortenson said she discovered she did not know who to turn to for emotional support at a new school and town, where she had yet to make any strong friendships.
She took several months before opening up to any of her Cal Poly friends about her father’s illness, said marketing senior and friend Laurel McKay.
“She found out about it right before she got to college, so she was dealing with it herself,” McKay said. “She didn’t tell anyone about it for several months.”
When Mortenson told McKay she was thinking about starting a group to help students in similar situations, McKay said she was fully supportive.
“She doesn’t feel comfortable talking with everyone about it, which is why she wants to make the support group,” McKay said.
The support group was inspired by Mortenson’s trial and will help newer students at Cal Poly find the support that she could not, Mortenson said.
She said the support group is open to anyone who has been affected by a loved one having cancer — and is looking for an open and safe place to talk about it — and will be supported by Cal Poly’s Health and Counseling Services.
Getting interest in the support group has been a struggle, Mortenson said, because of how rarely cancer is discussed in a college environment.
Ideally, the support group would draw a minimum of six interested students to get Health and Counseling Services’ support, but even if only two or three join, Mortenson is committed to creating a safe place to discuss cancer.
“It’s been a struggle because usually you have to get people first to start something (such as the support group), but it’s kind of a silent issue for people,” Mortenson said.
Nevertheless, Mortenson is confident the support group will draw members, because of the number of people affected yearly by cancer.
“I assume out of 19,000 students, there are more than three people being affected, but the problem is people not talking about it,” Mortenson said.
Last year in the United States, an estimated 1,596,670 new cases of cancer were recorded, according to the American Cancer Society’s 2011 Cancer Facts and Figures publication. Of those, 168,480 cases were in California.
And these diagnoses have a huge impact on family members, as well as the person diagnosed, according to Katherine Row, the corporate communications director for the American Cancer Society.
Everything from finances to diet to the amount of attention parents pay their children is affected when a family member is diagnosed with cancer, Row said. Family members must learn to adjust to caring for their ill relative, and often this can be a difficult adjustment, Row said.
“The whole family has to learn how to treat the patient, so it really is a family disease,” Row said.
Mortenson’ said her support group is a way for Cal Poly students who are away from home and their support network of friends and family to find people that they can talk to and open up with about the changes brought on by the cancer diagnosis.
“We just don’t know what’s going to happen with the people that we love, so it’ll be a way of supporting that,” Mortenson said.