“Cancer Survivors” as Voluntary Helpers in Cancer Associations in France. Limits of the Balance between Service Offer and Social Demand

Historically, in France, cancer associations have been managed by doctors. Despite this, the French healthcare system has increasingly encouraged them to attract voluntary helpers who are not health workers. This development has given rise to the question of the competence and legitimacy of voluntary workers in cancer associations. The aim of the present study was to identify the skills possessed by voluntary helpers who have survived the disease and the extent to which their skills meet the needs of cancer associations in responding to the demands that have emerged in this new context. This is a qualitative study based on data collected during semi-directed interviews, focus group sessions and on-site observations in a variety of French cancer associations. Categorical and thematic analyses were then carried out separately for each ethnographic method used. The study showed that because the commitment of survivor voluntary helpers derives from their own experience of the disease, it is inconsistent with the fulfilment of the association’s collective aims, such as the search for funding or project development. These helpers nevertheless play an important role that involves a special link between the individual and the group, between the community and society. To conclude, “involved” volunteers have to reconcile their individual expectations with the association’s collective aims.