Table 3 Quotations^a on problem- and emotion-centred strategies during illness. Majorca 2017–2019

Attitudes

 Resignation

E07_W61: I spent the night crying, all night, all night … but then I thought: “I am mortal, we are all mortal, if now it’s my time well … it’s my time.”

 Willpower, fighting spirit

E13_M71: “I can, I can and I will” and I could and I did, that’s it (laughs). And that also helped me to assert myself, right? To say: “This is the way.”

 Passivity

E09_W67: “[What did it mean for you the cancer diagnosis?] … Well, truth is that I barely took it in, I focused on getting it sorted, I trusted in the doctors and no, I didn’t even try.”

 Hope in health professionals

E01_W41: [What strategies did you use to deal with it?] Strategies … when the doctors told me: “We are going to do this, it’s not pleasant”, “Now we are going to put a camera inside you”, I told them: “I just don’t care”. My phrase … from the moment I was diagnosed, anything they asked I said: “Whatever it takes.”

 Denial

E20_M80: No, I’ve never felt [I have defeated cancer]. No, I’ve always felt I was okay, that what I had had was not real

 Self-sufficiency

E13_M71: [what has helped me most has been] trusting my body, my strength, both physical and mental … right? My ability to analyse and face situations, that helped a lot

Actions

 Daily routines

E20_M80: [Did you go for coffee every day … even when you knew that you had cancer?] Yes, every day, every morning … It helped because I met with friends and was not locked up … I switched off, switched off

 No thinking

E11_M68: I didn’t think about it too much, eh? I didn’t think about it too much because the more you think about it the worse, right? I continued to go to work and worked until shortly before my surgery

 Understanding the disease

E02_M46: [What other things helped you cope with the disease during treatment?] Reading, I guess we all do it, I wanted information … of the disease, from prominent foreign oncologists, that explain the possible causes or origin of cancer to try and correct habits, to improve the situation

Positive / negative feelings

 Optimism, staying positive

E09_W67: It has a huge impact, some people are negative and other positive. And this has given me lots of strength, staying positive with all this

 Negativity (pessimism, sadness, anger…)

E12_W68: Some people need to cry, some need to understand, some need to be angry, and some don’t quite understand