Hi everyone, I was diagnosed in January with an iris melanoma and am currently having proton beam therapy.
I have had a mix of emotions from being upset , anxious , scared and nervous about what this means for me and my family and if I should have the treatment or not , hence i decided to have treatment.
I found that I was upset hearing the diagnosis but then had to deal with my family’s emotions as well and I’ve never heard of this melanoma of the iris before. I also started to feel like a fraud as I’m not unwell like others with cancer .
A friend said that there is support for people with cancer to help with cost of travel and prescriptions and if having time off work. However there doesn’t seem to be much information on this for eye cancers , does anyone else have information about this thanks .
Hi and a very warm welcome to the online community
Feeling anxious and scared is perfectly normal when you discover that you have a cancer diagnosis. I remember feeling completely numb when I was told 4 years ago that what I thought was an odd lesion on my arm was, in fact, malignant melanoma.
It must make it doubly hard for you if you're trying to support your family to come to terms with your diagnosis as well as coming to terms with it yourself. If they are struggling then it might help them to speak to someone on the Macmillan Support Line. It's free to call on 0808 808 0000 and there's someone available every day from 8am to 8pm.
You are most definitely not a fraud!!!! As I said, my version of melanoma was the skin variety and I wasn't ill with it either. However, I still had to go through treatment to remove it and to make sure that it hadn't spread elsewhere. I also have to have 3 monthly check-ups for five years to make sure that it hasn't come back.
I can see that you've posted your question about whether there is any help towards the cost of travel and prescriptions in the ask an expert section of the online community and they will certainly be able to answer those questions for you.
It would be great if you could pop something about your journey so far into your profile as it really helps others when answering or looking for someone with a similar diagnosis. 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.
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"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
That's the great thing about the online community , you don't need to worry about upsetting us! We've all been there and got the t-shirt and will look to give as much support as we can.
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"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
