To Dana, family support meant having someone available to show love, listening and offering positive support. Supporters would help out where needed so the woman would be better able to handle the emotional and psychological distress associated with the disease. She stated,
I would say that’ one o f the things that need to be addressed when it comes to teaching young people— let them know that to you will need the support o f their family and things o f that nature. A lot o f people are not equipped to handle the emotional burdens and strains, stresses, and depression that may come along with it.
Also, women relied on other significant persons in their lives such as partners, friends, classmates, and teachers. As Nicole stated, “My family was so supportive and even my friends
in school and my teacher rallied behind me.” In this study, family members and friends were instrumental in providing for the needs of African American women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The women believed that family members actively gave support in whatever manner and by whatever means and aid that was needed to help them and make them comfortable. These findings were consistent with Ashing-Giwaet al. (2002), who found that Black women depended on their families to help cope with their disease: When asked what they thought about a woman their age having breast cancer, the young women’s responses were mixed. The five young women who were diagnosed with breast cancer before they were 37 years of age thought they were just too young to have breast cancer. Initially, they lost hope and could not look forward to life. The disease would deprive them of reaching goals and experiencing life’s opportunities. The women believed they would not get breast cancer early in their life and that breast cancer was a disease of older women. They looked for a plausible explanation for why it happened to them at that point in their lives when they were so active, enjoying life, involved in intimate relationships, raising families, and achieving career goals.Several of the women had more questions than answers as they pondered why they had to get breast cancer early and not at an older age and why it could not have happened to someone else instead, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Camilla, age 36 years old at the time of diagnosis, stated