Following on from last month's 'Meet the Champs' Q&A with Greg777, this month we meet MikeO, who you'll find Champing our Head and neck cancer group.
Enjoy...
I found the Community not long after my diagnosis in October 2013, after a bit of manic Googling had got me terrified for my prospects I calmed down and looked for a more balanced view. I've always been a big user of internet forums since first taking the plunge into the computer age in 2004 and I'm active in several, travel based some of them but mostly an Everton football club forum that I'm a co-admin on (somebody has to do it). Not a fan of social media in the Facebook or Twitter sense but I like to get to 'know' people on forums so the Macmillan one was a natural home for me.
Several spring to mind (if I'm allowed more than one); the first was in my very early days when I discovered a really helpful lady who was one of the first to offer me advice actually lived in the same road my wife and I used to in Glastonbury, what a coincidence! Then there was the lady whose eighty plus year old mother had her primary in the same rare spot as mine was (piriform fossa, bet you didn't even know you had one) and her friendship as her mum battled through, she was/is (I hope) one tough lady. Finally, being asked to be a Champion, uplifting and humbling experience that I (and my family) are so proud of.
Struggling with this because I'm not good at taking advice. My dad always used to tell me that his method of dealing with problems life threw at him was to put them in "boxes" in his head and put them to one side, so I suppose he meant really to deal with one thing at a time. Can't do that though sadly, I'm more the "lie in bed wide awake worrying about everything I can think of to worry about" kind of person. So, I'll invoke my AA Milne devotion and go for, "don't step on the cracks in the pavement or the bears will get you".
'Never try to be brave and grin and bear it, make a nuisance of yourself with your team if you need to'
Very difficult due to the massively wide range of reasons people find themselves here, from totally grief stricken to having a nagging concern something might be amiss; but I think I'd settle on, "There is no such thing as a stupid question". Can I just add to never try to be brave and grin and bear it, make a nuisance of yourself with your team if you need to; that's what they're there for but these wonderful people are hugely busy so if you stay quiet they'll assume you're OK.
More than one again (I'm not very good at this am I?), several in fact with brief reasons. First my consultant and his wonderful team whose efforts mean I can type this. Musically Neil Young and Billy Bragg (for their music and their social conscience). Sporting Alan Ball and Peter Reid because as an Evertonian I can't leave them out. But ultimately the finest man to walk on the planet in my lifetime is, for me, Nelson Mandela.
Easy one this. I once had a pub lunch with Judi Dench and her late husband Michael Williams. As a young sound engineer I spent the day in a studio recording extracts from Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy with them for English Literature revision packs. They were such lovely people and when the lunchbreak came I fully expected to be left waiting while they and the producer went to eat (I was little more than a kid) but not a bit of it. My son is so impressed I had lunch with "M".
In case any members or users of the Community weren't totally sure what a Community Champion is, our Champs are a group of dedicated Community members who've volunteered to keep an extra close eye on the site for us. Our Champs welcome new members to the Community, ensure they're comfortable using the site, offer fantastic support and give members a 'nudge' in the right direction on further support when it's needed.
