Blogging can be a great way to journal your experiences and share with others. Why not create your own cancer journey blog, or have a read of other blogs created by our members?
Unsure how to get started? Take a look at our help pages on blogs.
A very Happy New year from everyone on the Community Team, we are excited to kick off the year on the Community News Blog with the third volume in our series ‘What the Community means to me…’ This series highlights just how much support, friendship and kindness is shared on the site every day. Today moomy shares her story, why not take a moment to read through? Missed the last instalment? You can click here to read Johnty and popgate’s stories.
‘I’m really called Helen. I...
So far, we’ve asked for your favourite Christmas traditions and songs and what a response we’ve had! It’s been wonderful to hear all about what our members do over the holiday period and today, we’re wanting to hear more.
This week, we are giving away 9 echo dots. Echo dots are smart speakers which you can use to voice control your music and smart home, connect with others by making calls and it comes with in-built assistive technology where you can ask 'Alexa' to answer...
It's not just the cancer! It's the loneliness too, it's the world carrying on having fun whilst I weep, it's the practical things I don't have the ability to do, it's the stress of my limited finances, the inability to pretend I'm still me, the confidence that left me, the fear that controls me & the deep sadness I now seem to keep.
I'm trying to heal physically but I'm not healing mentally. I'm lost as to what I now do.
I've realised how lonely I am &...
While December can be a month of excitement, celebration and time spent with family and friends it can also be a very difficult, stressful and conflicting time for many. Taking time to look after yourself amongst the busyness of the season is so important, so why not grab a hot drink, snuggle up warm and read through some of the wellbeing tips from the last month?
'Time is precious, people are precious, and a good mindset says " don't waste energy stressing over stuff that we just don't have control...
When I knew I was going to have Doxorubicin chemotherapy for my sarcoma (aka the Alien) I tried to find out as much as I could. The booklet I was given contained a huge list of side effects and the reassurance that not all of them happen. I couldn’t find anything that said what proportion of patients get which side effects and when.
Looking back after having finished the first cycle I don’t think the side effect were as bad as I expected. I just hope it hurt the Alien more than it hurt me....
Today we are excited to announce the second of our festive prize draws. Thank you to everyone that took part last week, we loved to read about your Christmas traditions.
This week we’re giving away two care packages which were kindly donated by Cancer Care Parcel.
These thoughtful care packages include both useful and fun things that anyone who may be having treatment or going through a difficult time may find comforting.
Included in the care package:
To enter the draw:
This week we want...
Well biopsy day arrived and the doctor explained he would be taking several samples and one for the trial. Last March I signed up to the mel resist trial when my lymph node increased in size last March and I’d been on Pembrolizumab for 9 months, so they could take my node to look at what was different about it that it wasn’t reacting. As this was a needle biopsy they were I assume taking extra fluid out of the node. The doctor commented that the node looked smaller than it had on the scan results...
Today we have the second instalment of our ‘What the Community means to me…’ series. This series highlights just how much support, friendship and kindness is shared on the site every day. Today we have two members, and Popgate sharing their stories and discussing what it means to them to be on the site. Why not take a moment to read through? Missed our first instalment? You can click here to read tvman's story.
Johnty's story:
'I was diagnosed 17 months ago with a rare...
I was given a piece of advice when I lost you - dont make any major decisions or changes for at least a year. Grief was so painful I ignored that advice....
Anyway it's not neat in a book where there are chapters... it's not the beggining of a story and the end of a story. Its forever threaded through my life like silver thread. Its changed me forever. I'll never be the me I was before. Life will not be neat little chapters and I wont be over it and it wont fade and it wont be ok with me - I'll...
Months down the line from first diagnosis, I am now at the radiotherapy stage. Up until now I had not asked many questions about my type of cancer, I have never researched it in books or on the internet & I could not even bring myself to even look at any leaflets (of which there are many as everyone involved in your treatment seems to want to give you a leaflet). You see, I just wanted to curl up in a ball & wish the cancer away.
Every time I had a hospital appointment or had to see a nurse...
