The pancyprian association of cancer patients and friends (Pasykaf) has stood beside patients and their families for four decades, Deputy Social Welfare Minister Tina Pavlou said on Friday.

Pavlou said a cancer diagnosis reshapes daily life and family balance far beyond the person who is ill.

“Along with the practical changes it brings, comes anxiety, uncertainty, fear and the need to adapt to a new reality,” she said.

She said those close to a patient often struggled to know how to respond. “It is perfectly human not to know how to handle such a situation, what to say, how to help one of our own or even how to find the courage and strength ourselves to stand by them,” she said.

Pavlou said Pasykaf’s specialised psychological and social support reached far beyond the patient.

“They also embrace the family, the caregivers, the people around them,” she said, describing that presence during difficult periods as one that “can really make a difference.”

She said ensuring support reached families when they needed it was “a basic responsibility of the state”, one that depended on cooperation across ministries, government agencies, professionals and the public.

She pointed to the deputy ministry’s continued partnership with Pasykaf towards that effort, including funding for the association’s social support service through the state aid scheme, which covers psychosocial care, information, guidance and referrals to other services.

Pavlou said internal procedures within the welfare benefits management service aimed to expedite process applications from cancer patients.

“A person who is already called upon to manage a serious illness and what it entails for them and their family should not, to the extent that this can be avoided, be burdened with additional suffering or unnecessary bureaucratic procedures,” she stressed.

Pasykaf was founded in 1986, when twenty-one people with direct experience of cancer, together with family members and friends, came together around the belief that no one should face the disease alone.

The organisation has since grown into a body providing psychological and practical support to cancer patients and their families across Cyprus.