Community News - Macmillan Online Community

November catch-up from the Community - 'This forum is a lifeline and keeps me sane'

As we move into December, it’s time to take a look at what’s been happening on the Community throughout November and share some of the valuable support you’ve been offering each other. We’ve welcomed 1,828 new members to the Community in November. Although we are sorry that circumstances have brought you here, we wish a very warm welcome to each and everyone of you. We hope that you find the site to be a safe place of comfort and support. 'This forum is a lifeline and keeps me sane, thanks to every contributor as they have all helped on the journey. Now 2 years on and things are much better...' - Community member, breast cancer forum We know that the Community can be a lifeline for some members. The Community team will do all we can to ensure we’re here for everyone who needs us. We…

Steph - Online Community Team
Cancer & Me 35 Years On – ‘against all odds we can survive’

Willo is back today with the final Instalment of her blog series, ‘Cancer and me 35 years on’. Willo is a member of our Community who was diagnosed with Anal cancer in 1986 while living in Zambia. In this blog series Willo has been sharing her experience of living through and beyond cancer. Alongside sharing everything she has been through, Willo has also been sharing the amazing artwork she created during this time in her life. We shared Willo's first blog, ‘ To begin at the beginning ’ back In May 2020, and over the last 18 months, Willo has talked about everything she has been through. From moving back to England for treatment, her Abdominoperineal Resection , going back to art school post-surgery and the amazing friends and family that helped her through. When Willo first started her…

Former Member
Introducing Community badges!

Introducing our new Community badges! We are really excited to be able to share with you today a new feature on the online Community, our Community badges. Our Community badges are not only a new way for our members to quickly identify the Community team, and our Community Champions, but also a way to celebrate you and the amazing support you provide each and every day on the Community. We have three badges which we are going to be launching, and we wanted to tell you more about each of these badges below. Staff badge This badge is for Macmillan’s Community team. The Community team are Macmillan staff that are dedicated to running the Community. The Community team are available 7 days a week and are here to support you. This badge will only be given to members of Macmillan’s Community…

Former Member
Urology Awareness Month

Urology. Defined in the Oxford dictionary as the branch of medicine concerned with the function and disorders of the urinary system. It’s always been a sensitive topic and often leads to not getting the medical attention that is required when a problem occurs in this area. In fact, according to the research done by Bupa , one in five UK adults who have experienced potential cancer symptoms, have not seen a doctor due to being too embarrassed to go. In this blog, we take a look at the Community to help break down the stigma of embarrassment and taking better precautions to look after our urological health. Listed below are the different areas in the urological system than can be affected by cancer. They are as follows: Prostate Bladder Kidney Testicular Penile Each link contains…

Syed - Macmillan
Alone in this, together. Blood cancer awareness.

Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be an isolating experience. "Im just feeling so lonely because I cant talk to my loved ones about my fears because I know how much it will make them be afraid!" julielovesGoats, New to the Community group . This can be even more true for those who receive a rarer cancer diagnosis, like some blood disorders. In today’s Community News Blog we’re hoping to create a space where those diagnosed with a rarer cancer can come together and share their experience. We will also share some resources and direction for those affected by blood disorders, to honour blood cancer awareness month this September. Feeling isolated is something that most people have experienced in the last year in one way or another. The Online Community is here to remind you that you are not alone…

Tom C - Online Community team
Being a partner and a carer: how cancer can affect relationships

A loved one being diagnosed with cancer can have just as big an emotional and practical impact as a personal diagnosis. This can have a greater impact if you also become a carer. Many members here on the Community team who are supporting a partner might want to do everything they can to help. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t need support too. Here in the Community News blog, we often say every diagnosis and experience can be different. That’s true for relationships too. For some people, a partner having a cancer diagnosis might not impact your relationship at all. For others, a cancer diagnosis can cause additional worries and difficulties in a relationship. You aren’t alone in what you’re going through, no matter how you feel. A cancer diagnosis can affect relationships in many ways…

Eliza -Online Community Team
Our members are here for you

Today we wanted to take some time to highlight the amazing support that our members provide to one another each and every day here on the Community. Whether you need practical info on what others found useful to bring along to treatment, information on what support is out there, or simply someone to share how your day’s been with, our Community cancer forum is here for you. No matter what has brought you to the site, no matter how cancer has affected your life, our members will support you through, and the kindness of strangers soon becomes the kindness of friends. Here on the team we know how amazing each of our Community members are at supporting one another, but we wanted to let the below quotes speak for themselves. “You are probably on the ceiling at the moment and don’t know which…

Former Member
Brain cancer Awareness month- Simon's Story

Simon is 45 years old from South Wales and today he is sharing his cancer experience as part of Brain cancer awareness month. If you or someone you know has been diagnosed, our Brain cancer groups are here to support you. I have had poor health most of my life due to a neurological condition called Neurofibromatosis. When in my teens I had lots of problems with my bowels and lived with a stoma bag for a year and had a total colectomy which is the removal of the large bowel. This was down to benign tumours in my guts. After this, my mother was told I wouldn’t live to see my twenties but happily, I proved medics wrong. At twenty I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. It was discovered straight away, and I had an operation to remove the left testicle, it was all I needed. As years went by…

Megan- Online Community Team
“I just want to be me again” - Jon's story, volume 2

We first heard from Jon in the first of his blog series where he talked about his diagnosis, and what led him to share his story. Our members often talk about ‘scanxiety’ and how difficult it is in the run up to getting a scan, and then waiting for results. In today’s blog, Jon talks a little more about his experience of ‘scanxiety’ and the impact it’s had on him. Scanxiety It’s been going on for a while now. It always follows the same routine. Somehow, subconsciously, I just know it’s coming. I start to tense up, and my sleep starts to suffer. The sleep I manage to get, I spend grinding my teeth. When I’m awake, I’m just snapping at people or being irrational. Cancer does that to you. All that broken sleep ages you too. “Oh you look tired?” “Yeah Karen, I haven’t slept in three weeks…

Ellen - Macmillan
"...I was winded by the realisation that I could've died. Equally, I realised that now I had to live." - David's story

Last month, Community News shared My cancer, my sexuality, me. – a piece written by a gent named David, which spoke about his diagnosis and its relation to his sexuality. David’s story made for an extremely honest and heartfelt read, so I thought I’d ask him to contribute another piece this month. Fortunately, David recently underwent chemotherapy treatment which proved to be successful. His below piece covers difficulties and mixed feelings David felt following this news. I should mention David originally shared this piece with the Centre for Mental Health ; a fantastic charity that works to promote mental health and wellbeing, and to change inequality and disadvantage throughout the life course. The walk from the waiting room to his office seemed interminable. The lights were harsh…

Former Member
Arts, crafts and coping with cancer

"…it gave me better pain relief than any drug could ever do.” Facing cancer arguably takes a lot of energy, and naturally it becomes a central focus of someone’s life. But this doesn’t mean hobbies or pastimes, including arts and crafts, need to fall to the wayside. Such hobbies often provide a vital escape to where cancer is no longer the central focus, but rather your enjoyment and perhaps solace in whatever hobby or pastime works for you. You might already be aware of this, but our Community has various threads dedicated to arts, crafts and other hobbies members are involved in that they find beneficial when facing cancer. I asked members of these threads to tell me how arts and crafts has helped them... “I’ve quite a history of arts and crafts, I pastel paint (but haven’t for a while…

Former Member
Temporarily disabled email notifications

Hi everyone, Last week, we used a feature to send an email notification to all members to let them know about our update on the site upgrade . You may have seen the below email in your inbox: Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, this email is being sent to users multiple times. Because of this, we have had to temporarily disable email notifications from the Community. This means users will not receive any email notifications from the Community. We have raised this as a critical issue and this is being looked into as a priority. We're really sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and we hope to have email notifications up and running shortly.

Ellen - Macmillan