Shanghai Roots & Shoots, the local branch of the international Jane Goodall Institute, kicked off a new program yesterday that seeks to give leukemia patients more information about their disease - and more optimism about life.

The Care for Leukemia Patients program provides free lectures on healing by doctors and experts from Ruijin Hospital. It seeks to build confidence among sufferers of the disease through communication and psychological therapy.

"Leukemia patients thirst for care and love from their family and society. They also demand knowledge about their illness," said Li Yujing, office manager of Shanghai Roots & Shoots. "We seek to extend, improve and reinforce the routine therapies these patients receive at hospitals by devoting more care to their psychological needs and raising their quality of life."

At yesterday's get-together marking the start of the program, more than 30 patients suffering from chronic leukemia, most of whom were elderly, received free lectures and consultations on treatment.

Under the guidance of fitness instructors from the organization, patients also learned new exercise therapies. Yu Xia, the program's initiator, said volunteers from the organization had visited doctors, other experts and patients to gather information about patient needs before designing the effort.

"We found they wanted to get an overall understanding of the disease, from basic treatment knowledge to therapy options. These things were hard for them to learn before because they usually isolated themselves at home," Yu said. "We hope they can free themselves from pessimism with our care and support."

(Shanghai Daily November 7, 2008)