Tender Loving Care

In a first for Four Seasons Resorts in the Asia-Pacific region, a dedicated Cancer Care Massage and bespoke wellness programme are now available in Bali.

- Eve Tedja

Agung Rai was 41 years old when she found a lump on her left breast. She was diagnosed with a hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, a type of cancer when cells grow in response to the hormone estrogen.

For more than one year, she had to bear chemotherapy, mastectomy, radiations, and a lifetime hormone therapy to prevent the return of the disease. The battle was too lonely to be waged alone. Fortunately, she found support in Pink Fighters Bali, a community of women living with breast cancer and part of a support group of the Bali Pink Ribbon Foundation.

The side effects of the treatment were severe. Hair loss, joint pain, nausea, hot flashes, fatigue and numbness were just some of what Rai experienced after the ordeal. “The treatment was a long and tiring process. My body ached and sometimes I had it carefully massaged but only on the back or feet. I did not dare to allow the therapist to touch me anywhere on the chest,” says Rai even now, four years after she was diagnosed. She is not alone in being afraid to have massages during or after cancer treatment.

Most of spa and retreat centres are also reluctant to treat guests with history of cancer – all with a strong reason: the therapists are not equipped with the knowledge on how to care for a cancer-ridden body. After all, it was only in the late 2000s that studies about the benefit of massage on cancer patient started to emerge. With an estimated 19.3 million new cancer cases occurred in 2020 alone, it ranks as a leading cause of death and an important barrier to increasing life expectancy in every country in the world (Global Cancer Statistics 2020).