Handmade coloring books for adults help cancer patients

Handmade coloring books for adults help cancer patients

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GOSHEN, Ind. (AP) — It started as a doodle.

Now, Becca Briscoe of Goshen has developed four coloring books based on those doodles, featuring around 600 designs. Now, one of her books is being used by cancer patients to help them pass time while they're undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

Briscoe, 63, said it all started while she was watching the 2006 Winter Olympic luge competition. She said while she was curious who the winner was, she really didn't want to watch the competition.

"I don't even know who thought that sport up, that's just ridiculous," she said.

"I couldn't stand to watch it anymore," she said. "I started to doodle and I kept doodling and I have about 600 designs."

Briscoe said when she started the doodles with a Sharpie marker, the designs turned out very straight and even, without her trying.

"I'm not a symmetrical person, personality-wise, but everything turned out symmetrical," she said.

Once Briscoe began the doodles, she found that she couldn't stop.

"It was like eating popcorn," she said.

The coloring came about after looking at the plain black-and-white marker doodles over and over again.

"I never knew I wanted to color. I just liked to make the designs and then I got tired of just black-and-white, so I thought, 'Why don't I just color one of them?', and then I liked the coloring," she said.

Soon Briscoe was making coloring books for her family and friends.

Then her best friend from high school, Michael Sweazy of Elkhart, was diagnosed with liver, brain and lung cancer.

As Sweazy was weak from his treatments, Briscoe made him a coloring book and told him to try it out. Sweazy took to it and according to Briscoe, eventually set up coloring stations in his home so that he and visitors would have something to do.

"It was therapeutic for him, so I thought, 'Why don't I do a coloring book for chemo patients, because they're there for three, four, five hours and they need something to do?'" she said.

Briscoe made "Doodle While You Drip," a coloring book she donated to IU Health Goshen Center for Cancer Care.

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"So far, the patients really like them," she said. The book had a foreword by Sweazy, who died in September.

Briscoe has brought her coloring to others through a class at the Goshen Salvation Army Church. She said she would like to continue that with a class for prisoners or others who are adjusting to life after prison.

"It is an ageless pastime," she said. "It's sort of intoxicating, and it's healthier than actually drinking."

Coloring, she said, can break barriers and allow friendships and conversation to flow.

"Adults don't generally give themselves license to be doing something that is frivolous or non-productive," she said. "But they do see the stress relief in it, and that kind of legitimizes it, and it's kind of fun."

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Source: The Elkhart Truth, http://bit.ly/1RjcSgr

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Information from: The Elkhart Truth, http://www.elkharttruth.com

This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by The Elkhart Truth.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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