How can you pretend to ignore an intrusive mother-in-law who wants to give you your grandmother’s wigs to make your “after-chemo” easier? How do you make your loved ones, quick to turn the page, understand that you are not cured but “in remission” from your breast cancer? Or how do you explain to your darling – invested, since he shaved his head in solidarity – that you don’t want to go back to work, at least not the one before? The web series Emilie’s Pathwhose third season will be broadcast on YouTube on Monday, on the occasion of Pink October, responds in its own way, both light and subtle, to these situations, although they are heavy with pathos. And above all very real. Because real patients, followed at the Toulouse University Cancer Institute (IUCT-Oncopole), validated the scenarios. Just as authentic specialists in oncology have developed the advice “pastilles”, which burst into Emilie’s daily life, sometimes distilling them themselves in the guise of a waitress or a sloppy client of an agency. real estate.
With finesse and without clichés
“The initial idea was to break down the taboos on a hidden disease, which is scary,” underlines Charlotte Vaysse, surgeon at the Oncopole (when she is not a waitress for the cinema), but with finesse, while taking time to send messages. On nutrition in particular, to fight against the “preceived idea”, which certain gurus seize, of anti-cancer foods.
This collaborative adventure between patients, practitioners and the world of cinema should only have lasted one season. But that was without counting on the viewing success (70,000 views to date for the first five episodes) and esteem met by the first part, full of awards. And above all on the reaction of the main stakeholders. “It is useful for health professionals, in particular nurses who carry out announcement consultations and rely on Emilie’s paths, explains oncologist Françoise Dalenc. And it’s useful for patients, because watching the series with friends or family often allows them to explain things. »
” It was me. It was us! »
It’s not Eliane who will say the opposite. Thirteen years after her cancer, her “tsunami” as she says, she is one of those patients who always returns to the Oncopole. For its follow-up obviously, but also to help, testify and speak in conferences, “because the strength we took to fight, we want to give it meaning”. When Françoise Dalenc submitted the first script to her, Eliane accepted with the intention of making it a studious, effective reading. “But I didn’t stop crying, because I recognized myself so much,” she says, “it’s simply screaming the truth.” The one who speaks, knowingly, about the difference between recovery and remission, sitting behind the heroine, in season 2, was overwhelmed by a second wave of emotion on the set. “This Emilie, her postures, her way of thinking, of speaking, it was me, it was us! “. Eliane was particularly touched by the delicate questions from director Martin Le Gall and the actors. “We felt that sticking to our reality was their major concern.”
Frequent reconversions
Moreover, it is at the request of IUCT patients that season 3 is dedicated to “return to work”. Emilie faces the physical backlash of the “steamroller” of the treatment, with her memory lapses and her concentration problems. Without spoiling, it also does not escape questioning, which is rather frequent in real life. “Conversions are not rare. Many women no longer find themselves in the profession they had before. They no longer make sense to them and they turn to very different professions, often with more contact with others,” says Françoise Dalenc. Eliane, once again confirms. “Cancer cannot be a simple parenthesis,” she insists. I live differently, I do other things. I took up sports and I enjoy every sunset. »