fed up with soaps depicting cancer

I do agree with you - I have been living with cancer in the family for nearly 10 years now, and I still feel very uncomfortable, even when the adverts come on.  If it weren't for all the hype, a lot of which is completely out-dated, I'm sure it wouldn't be so frightening when people got their diagnosis. 

When Tanya and Carol got breast cancer in Eastenders, it was all over in a flash - a matter of months, whereas my treatment seems to be going on forever, admittedly due to complications, but someone in the know recently remarked 'it's not even been a year yet!' which filled me with joy, as you can imagine! They failed to show the level of support I have received from everyone involved in the hospital, from nurses to consultants - I do hope everyone else has had the same level as I don;t know how I would have managed without it.

Wishing you all the best

I,m glad somebody agrees with me my first cancer was 5 years ago and like you still having treatment  next appointment is on 18th may at the christies  manchester  like you i could not have managed without the help of macmillan and the christie and of cause my family but soap writers  are not interested in the long term treatment not good viewing figures..just to let you know yet another lump in eastenders  don"t normally watch nowadays..

I agree, they almost make it seem like a walk in the park. I know they don't want to scare people with the harsh realities of cancer treatments but that doesn't mean they should trivialise it. I also find the current celebrity trend of 'my brush with cancer or my cancer scare' irritating. Many people find lumps or have symptoms which could indicate cancer, but a diagnosis that you do not have cancer is hardly worthy of a news headline!

It isn't just Cancer they make 'seem so simple' but also other things like Epilepsy. My partner died 4 yrs ago due to Bowel Cancer, so I've been through the 'routine' with him. I've also had Epilepsy all my life, so I know what that's like. Whenever I watch these programmes, I'm always thinking 'what a load of rubbish' when it comes to illnesses like that.

I stopped watching Doctors on BBC1 because of this. They depicted a dizzy receptionist telling patients about her cancer and I had to turn off or I would have thrown something at the TV!