Hello, I’m new and have joined as my elderly father was diagnosed with Oesophageal Cancer in January 2025. Due to his age and other medical conditions, they are not able to treat him so we are trying to cope and manage his symptoms. He’s struggling with soft foods so we are looking at a stent but he keeps saying he’s not hungry and is losing a lot of weight. When we try and get him to eat more, he is being very stubborn though he says he does appreciate our help. I just wondered if anyone has any experience or advice on how we can support him and get him to eat more without annoying him! It’s so frustrating but we’re trying to stay positive.
Thanks in advance!
Hi GreenOcean and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I’m Anne, one of the Community Champions here on the Online Community, and although I was diagnosed with different types of cancer to your father I know how difficult dealing with a cancer diagnosis can be for the whole family.
The online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you join the oesophageal cancer group as you'll then connect directly with others who either have this type of cancer or who are supporting someone with it.
To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
It would be great if you could put something about your father's diagnosis into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
