Hello
I've just searched for Cornwall on this forum, and the most recent post is four years old. Four years. In a county of half a million people.
I wanted to introduce myself properly, because I think context matters here.
I'm Tanya, based near Newquay in Cornwall. I was diagnosed in 2021...screen-detected DCIS, which turned out to also be a 35mm grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma. By the time we had the full picture, 20 out of 31 lymph nodes were positive. There was also a worrying adrenal mass diagnosed as a secondary, which thankfully turned out to be a false positive (the relief of that moment is hard to describe).
I had a wide local excision, axillary clearance, weekly paclitaxel, a cycle of epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (stopped due to severe toxicity), and radiotherapy. I was on anastrozole for a year and a half, switched to exemestane, and completed a two-year course of abemaciclib. I'm now on the Elegant drug trial with elacestrant.
I'm not sharing all of that to overwhelm anyone, I doubt anyone here would be. You've been through your own version of this. The physical side is one thing. But navigating life during and after cancer, in a county where there is so little community support? That's its own very particular kind of hard.
Cornwall is beautiful, and I wouldn't be anywhere else. But it's also vast, rural, and genuinely isolated when it comes to the kind of connection and support that people going through cancer need and deserve.
I'd love for us to start something here, a little Cornwall corner of this community. Somewhere to check in with each other, share what local support does exist, and simply know there's someone not too far away who truly understands.
If you're in Cornwall, I'd love to connect.
Tanya 
Hi TanyaCornwall and a very warm welcome to the Macmillan Community
The New to Community area is like our reception desk where we direct you to our various groups as the Community is actually divided into dedicated Support Groups (Discussion Rooms) so can I recommend that you look to join and put up your own post in our dedicated……..
…….. support group. This group is a safe place to talk to others with a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support.
To connect in with the group please click on the link above……. then once the group page opens you will see a [Black - Click to Join - Banner] at the bottom of the page, click in this box and this will then confirm that you have joined the group.
You can then introduce yourself to the group by putting up your very own post by clicking [+ Create new post] or [+] in the top right of the group page.
You can copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
Do get back to me if you need further help navigating the community.
