Health Anxiety

Hi Vicky67 

Thank you for contacting us, my name’s also Vicky and I’m a Support Advisor here at Macmillan.  I’m so sorry to hear about your mum’s condition and that she’s struggling, it must be very distressing for you too, seeing her suffering like this, how are you doing?

With regards to your mums’ anxieties, first of all, it might be good to look at some therapy or counselling for you mum if she’d be open to this? Although counselling is generally done through a referral from her GP this can take some time as waiting lists tend to be long, but you could speak with your mum’s Cancer Team to make them aware of her anxieties, sometimes they have psychologists/counselling at the hospital she attends who may be able to see her sooner, it’s not always the case but worth looking into.   If your mum is in a position to pay privately for counselling then the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) has a directory of accredited therapists where you can find one in your her area, I’ve put a link to their website for you to have a look.

Although we’re not counsellors Vicky, please let your mum know that the Macmillan Support Line is here for her, as a place she can contact privately and confidentially to talk through how she’s feeling and access emotional support, sometimes just knowing that there’s someone there to talk things through with can help. We also have a lovely team of Cancer Nurses here too so if she’s worried, she can always talk to them, it might just be enough to alleviate any immediate anxiety or fear she has, just be aware that they don’t have access to her medical records so it is just general advice and support they can give her. 

We are here every day single day from 8am to 8pm on 0808 808 0000, it’s the same for the nurses, just select option 3 to speak to them, and we’re here for your too Vicky and anyone else affected by your mum’s situation so please pass that on.

You could also contact a local Macmillan Centre, if she prefers to speak to someone in person, we have a section on our website called In Your Area where you can put your postcode in and find any support, not just Macmillan, near to where you live, if there’s a centre near your mum then she could give them a call and see what’s available.

Finally, Vicky, we do have some useful literature on the emotional effects of cancer, you can access the pdf versions of our booklets or arrange for copies to be sent in the post, there may be some information in them that can hopefully help your mum. Here’s a link to our information site for you to look at.

I hope this information is of some use to you Vicky, it’s just some general suggestions, but if you’d like to discuss more about the support you or we can give  please don’t hesitate to give us a call where we can look at your situation more in depth.

Kindest regards,