Inequality in cancer is often framed as disparities in mortality, incidence, and treatment. Cancer rehabilitation aims to help people live the best possible life with cancer, regardless of their background. In this study, I explore how people with lung cancer who are not participating in rehabilitation perceive and navigate everyday life. I use the concepts "biographical disruption," "biographical flow," and "struggling along" to conceptualize their way of life as a "coming-around" existence. I argue that inequality in cancer rehabilitation should go beyond unequal participation and focus on unequal opportunities to be understood and embraced by the healthcare system.
Keywords: Critical phenomenology; Denmark, cancer rehabilitation; everyday life; health inequality.