Transforming desolation into consolation: being a mother with life-threatening breast cancer.

The purpose of this study is to describe lived experiences of being ill with breast cancer for mothers with dependent children. A special focus is to explore meanings of desolation and consolation, and meanings of transforming the consolation. Stories of Swedish women who took part in a supportive network for young women with breast cancer were interpreted phenomenological-hermeneutically as transforming desolation into consolation. This means a changed direction in the longing and desires of the woman from outward to inward, from others to self, from emphasis on past and delimited presence to presence and future, and ending up in balancing between these opposites. Implications for women with breast cancer and their need for support are reflected upon.