Finding comfort in Community: Catching up with our Emotional support forum

4 minute read time.
Finding comfort in Community: Catching up with our Emotional support forum

After receiving a cancer diagnosis, you may experience different emotions. These can be difficult to cope with. The same feelings may also be felt by partners, family members, and friends. Sharing your feelings can help you and others in your situation. In this blog, we will highlight some of the profound discussions that have taken place within our Emotional support forum. Our emotional support forum offers a safe space for connection, empathy, and shared experience.

Embracing each emotion

Many Community members have expressed feeling angry at some point after being diagnosed. Anger can be directed at oneself, a loved one, or even a medical team member. One member reached out for support in our forum. They wrote about their struggle with anger and asked for advice.

A fellow Community member reassured them, writing that “it's okay to feel angry.” They suggested another way to channel their anger.

Another member replied and shared about their evolving emotions. They reminded the forum that feelings can change. We may feel one intense emotion one day, or even a sense of calm, and then feel differently the next. There is no right or wrong way to feel. Everyone is unique and deals with different emotions along the way.

Frozen in fear: Finding solidarity in shared emotions

Fear is a natural response when faced with a cancer diagnosis. One member expressed their experience of being frozen in fear. Their husband had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, and they did not want to get out and face the real world.

Another member was quick to reply with gratitude. Hearing from people experiencing the same emotion as you can be very comforting. It helps to know that we are not alone when dealing with these emotions. This member went on to write about dealing with anxiety and fear, saying they had “found it so hard to live with the fear.”

Unexpected emotions

Even after completing cancer treatment and being declared “cancer free,” a whirlwind of emotions can ensue. Some members write about experiencing unexpected emotions after completing cancer treatment. Loss, confusion, guilt, and fear are common emotions during life after cancer. After finishing treatment for a rare form of cancer, this member shared experiencing a cloud of emotion.

One of our Community champions replied, reassuring them they were not alone in how they felt.

Supporting one another

Our Emotional Support forum is a beacon of hope and resilience. A place where members are free to express their feelings without judgement. It is a safe space that welcomes anxiety, depression, fear, and all the emotions that can accompany a cancer journey.

You might be dealing with challenging emotions currently. If so, we encourage you to join our Emotional support forum today. Our Online Community is there, ready to lend a listening ear, a comforting word, or a virtual hug to anyone in need.

Additional support and reading

At Macmillan, we are here to offer different types of support. If you need someone to talk to you can:

You can also find cancer support groups in your area.

If you are concerned about your emotional well-being or mental health, help is available from the NHS on 111 for England and Scotland, NHS Direct Wales on 0845 46 47 for Wales and you can find an out-of-hours service on NI Direct if you’re in Northern Ireland.

Further reading:

Anonymous
  • Hi everyone.  I must be an unusual sort.  When told of my prostate cancer I was with my wife.  I accepted the news very calmly, I thought that it was the case anyway and my wife looked at me and took the news as calmly as I did.  My prognosis is good, so I am told, and my injections are now six monthly.  I am a calm person anyway, so laid back I am horizontal as they say.  My wife and I do much walking locally sometimes in the early morning.  We are also live music lovers and attend a church not too far away to listen to an organ recital each Friday which is held to raise funds for the organ restoration.  Last night we attended the same church to hear a group of singers from a music academy in Cincinnati and even managed a short chat with one if the singers.  My advice to anyone who finds themselves handed  unfortunate news concerning their health is to find something to engage the mind on something other than the bad news.  Find something that you had given up and renew your interest or find something new.  Try getting involved with something where you will meet new people, take your mind off the bad thing and only think of it when needed.

  • Hi  ,

    Thank you for taking the time to share some of your story and some great advice with us. I also love music in all forms. My previous blog highlighted some of the chats about music in the online Community. You can click here to read it if you haven't had the chance already.

    Finding something meaningful to do or get involved in is really good advice. 

    Thanks again for sharing and I hope your treatment goes well. It sounds like you have a great attitude and I am sure you'll be remaining calm through it all:)

    Best wishes,
    Dylan

  • Thank you for your comment Dylan.  My wife and I met through music, me  being a member of a local operatic society and she joining one day to do something different.  My father was put to music by a much older brother on the death of their father. My uncle played in cinema orchestras until the talkies and then worked on transatlantic liners playing the violin.  As a child my uncle came to visit and musical evenings became the norm.  Violin duets on the piano and violin.  Monte’s Czardas and Massenet’s Intermezzo from Thais.  On my mothers side a female cousin sang with local bands in the 40s and 50s with one of her brothers singing in a 50s group called the Kentones, with the hit song Twenty Tiny Fingers Twenty Tiny Toes and appeared on the Royal Variety Show supporting the Crazy Gang.  I sang with a church choir from the age of eight until my early twenties.  We visited Germany, Holland and Italy to sing in concerts.  Music is one activity which permeates the whole mental being and will relax the mind and bring memories of very pleasant moments in life whatever the music may be.  You said that you love music in all forms.  Do you take part?

  • Thanks for sharing that Ossie. You sure do have music all over your family tree! Its sounds like you had an amazing time in that choir. What a great opportunity to travel and perform.  

    My family isn't very musical but I grew up with my father blaring music in our lounge most weekends. He has a great love for music and plays a bit of guitar. I picked up the guitar at the age of 15 and have been playing ever since. I mostly play guitar and sing. Nothing too serious but I have played in a few bands, mainly playing covers. I have also been involved in church music now and then over the years. 

    You are spot-on in the way you describe the power of music. Its such a powerful tool and an amazing gift.

  • Fourth of August 2023 today I got the results of the x-ray. The news are not very good one. I’ve lost half a stone in 6 months with no reason. I am 69 and my dad lost his fight with lung cancer at 69. I stopped smoking about 14 years ago. You kind of feel lost and all alone when you get these news. Here is part of the report 

    “Normal cardiac and mediastinal contours.Peripheral nodular pacification at the right apex which is new since the previous chest x-ray ? Lung nodules ? Scarring”