Community News - Macmillan Online Community

'Why do I feel so guilty?'

Guilt - one of the most confusing and hard to understand emotions out there. Sometimes, we can feel guilty without quite knowing exactly what we are feeling guilty about. Guilt can also feel like a very irrational emotion. Sometimes we know that what we are feeling guilty about isn’t our fault, yet it can still be hard to shake that feeling of guilt. Whenever anything big happens in our lives, we can feel lots of different emotions, sometimes even feeling things we haven’t felt before. When you, or a loved one, is diagnosed with cancer it’s understandable to feel a whole range of emotions. These emotions can include anger, sadness, confusion and even guilt. There is no wrong or right way to feel and not everyone will feel these emotions. The most important thing is to be kind to yourself…

Former Member
‘It’s a great comfort food’- Dining with an Ostomate: Fish pie

Debbie, our wonderful 'chef to ostomates' is back today with a delicious warming Fish Pie recipe, perfect for cold winter nights. All of Debbie’s recipes are, of course, designed with Ostomates in mind and in case you’ve missed any of her recipes to date, you can find them all in our Ileostomy, colostomy and stoma support group. So why not put an apron on and get cooking! 'This Fish Pie is another family favourite and is one that I have used many times over the last year as it’s a great comfort food.' Omit the onions if they upset your stomach. I never use cream, always milk and this has the added benefit that it freezes well. I often divide this into three portions and freeze two in foil containers. I usually defrost them before reheating for 30 minutes but you can reheat from frozen,…

Former Member
Cancer and Anxiety

Both bowel and testicular cancer awareness months happen in April. Whilst cancer diagnoses can vary hugely, the feelings and emotional experiences can sometimes be similar. In today’s Community News Blog, we are talking about cancer and anxiety. Whether it be anxiety around physical symptoms, concerns about upcoming cancer treatment, or even anxiety you can’t quite ‘label’ - we are here to talk about it all. Where to Start "I just seem to have no bounce. No urgency in myself. I’ve lost something within." - Online Community member. A cancer experience can impact your confidence and of course bring a lot of stress. Cancer treatment, and it’s side effects, can impact mental health. Whether you have a diagnosed anxiety disorder or not, we know from our members how hard it can be to ‘find a new…

Tom C - Online Community team
Radiotherapy: Tips from the Community

Radiotherapy is part of many people’s experiences with cancer, and lots of members talk about Radiotherapy here in the Online Community. No matter what treatment you’re experiencing, here in the Community there might be someone who really understands. We’ve collated some of our members’ tips and support below. Radiotherapy uses high-energy rays, such as x-rays, to treat cancer. People can have radiotherapy for different reasons, and you can read more about how radiotherapy works, side effects and more on Macmillan’s information and support website . It’s important to remember that the tips below are from Community members’ personal experiences. Everyone’s experience of cancer and radiotherapy can be different. If you have any questions or concerns about radiotherapy, it’s important to seek…

Eliza -Online Community Team
Life One Year Later- Jane’s story

Jane recently shared her ‘ Importance of pets during our cancer journey’ blog and is back as a guest blogger to share her reflections on her Endometrial cancer experiences one year later. She talks about some of the lasting effects from her chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments and also about dealing with the fear of recurrence. Jane also talks about how she recognises the positive changes on her life and talks about her volunteering role as a Community Champion. I am just coming up to a year since my treatments ended, the cancer has gone but life has changed. I think that when the treatments end, there is time where you can begin to try to process it all. The endless trips to hospital have stopped and now it is just once every twelve weeks. You sort of almost forget it until the letter…

Megan- Online Community Team
Local Cancer Community Meet-ups - Costa Coffee Glasgow and new venue at Costa Coffee Plymouth

By popular demand, the Local Cancer Community Meet-ups are back in Glasgow ( Sauchiehall Street) Costa Coffee. We are also starting Local Cancer Community Meet-ups at a new venue in Plymouth; Costa Coffee, New George St. If you're in the Glasgow or Plymouth area and you fancy chatting face-to-face with other people affected by cancer, we have another great opportunity to make some new friends. Following the success of the first pilot sessions in Glasgow, there are be meetings planned on Thursdays throughout April and May at both venues. These in-person events intend to build supportive communities of people local to the area they're hosted in. To avoid confusing them with our Online Community, we'll refer to these events as 'Local Cancer Community Meet-ups' here. If you would like to…

Steph - Online Community Team
My cancer, my sexuality, me.

Just a couple of weeks back I was fortunate enough to have the LGBT foundation get in touch asking if we’d be interested in hearing from a friend of theirs, David, who was diagnosed with cancer last September. David wished to share with us his story about being a gay man and facing cancer – fortunately, David's recent chemotherapy treatment has been successful! David’s story makes for an extremely heartfelt and eye-opening read, from a perspective perhaps shared too little on the Community. Here it is… My nephew – he’s 12 – and I, are in Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. We find ourselves in front of a large TV screen. There’s a film about the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality which took place in 1967. He’s curious and open minded (a credit to his parents, I say), and he watches…

Former Member
"I was not a man in my 60’s or 70’s – I was a 34 year-old female!"

Gina was diagnosed with lung cancer at just 34. She's kindly shared with the Community her experience of being diagnosed, and the shock and impact being diagnosed with cancer had on her at such a young age. If, like Gina, you were diagnosed with cancer at a young age, go ahead and share your experiences with us in the comments section below. You might also like to visit our Diagnosed at a young age group to talk about and share your experiences with others of a similar age. If you saw me walking down the street, it wouldn’t cross your mind that I have lung cancer would it? However, I am a growing statistic that seems to lack an awareness. It is becoming more and more common for young women to be diagnosed with lung cancer. Often, they have never smoked – so the usual red flags are out the…

Former Member
Telling your kids about cancer – experiences from the Online Community

Getting prepared Telling children about a cancer diagnosis can feel like you’re giving them a terrible burden to carry. Although it’s a conversation that no parent, guardian, or carer ever hopes to have with their children, it doesn’t always result in the negative impact we might assume. While there’s no right or wrong way to have this conversation, there are some general points to consider that may help you to have the most constructive conversations possible. The goal of this blog is to explore some of those important pointers by highlighting examples that members have shared with the Online Community over the years. If you or someone you know needs to share difficult news with children, we hope the quotes featured below will provide you with some inspiration, reassurance, and hope…

Matthew - 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 am told it helps to put all your worries and anxieties onto paper, that way they are out of your head' - My journey through Breast cancer in verse and word - Vol 2

With all the uncertainty of late, we felt it was important for us here on the Community News Blog to keep going as normal where we can. So today we wanted to share with you the second volume of our new series ‘My journey through breast cancer in verse and word’ by Amanda-Jayne. Amanda-Jayne was diagnosed with Breast cancer in June 2019 and used poetry and journaling to diarise her experience throughout. Amanda-Jayne has very kindly sent through her poetry and writing to us here and we are going to be sharing it with you over the next few weeks. If you missed the first volume of Amanda-Jayne’s blog, click here to read it 20th June 2019 First day back at work since diagnosis, everyone was lovely and supportive, gave me flowers and told me to focus on myself not work. Feel very tearful today…

Former Member
Spending Christmas without a loved one

At a time of year where we want to rejoice with our loved ones, sadly there are many different reasons why this may not be possible. This may be your first Christmas without a friend or family member, and there may be additional restrictions in place which means this festive period will be very different for you. However you are spending Christmas this year, we hope you can still find some peaceful moments. “This Christmas is going to be a very different one, so don't even try and compare it to others, you need to take care of yourself” AT7 , Reality hits and it hurts blog "I had planned a busy Christmas with a number of changes, but the government have put paid to that! I wonder how many others will struggle more because of this? I have a feeling it could be a long few days with too…

Megan- Online Community Team