Are macmillan any good?

Hi David.

You'll get some good advice from this community, everyone on here has been thru it, just like you. If you are looking for advice it's good to post a brief history of yourself plus stats in order to get useful replies.

Also have u tried prostate cancer.uk.org,  good for telephone advice.

Steve

I would have a look at the prostate cancer uk website and have a read of their leaflets.  If you need advice you can contact their specialist prostate cancer nurses on line or by phone they have been invaluable to me. 

Macmillan have a pretty broad range of skills and experience, but a lot depends on what you are relying on them for. On the other hand, if you feel your support has not been good enough, you should put in a complaint, or telephone their HQ and ask for help.

If you have been let down, my sympathy is entirely with you - but I don't think a general moan on a forum is the right way to deal with the issue.

I have left it a while to reply since you made me feel guilty to say anything. Since then I have seen lots more posts. If I want to moan I will. My whole treatment has had to work through Macmillan and I have actually found them not to be the specialists they always should be. I have have a multitude of serious side effects from the radiation and the Macmillan nurses I spoke to, as I was told to, were not very good and not helpful and so I resorted to my GP who has been much more helpful. Then I asked to speak to my actual oncology doctor who was concerned I had to go to my GP and said I should be getting better treatment from macmillan. So I am sharing that. We all have journeys and all of us have our experiences and I am sure you have a great knowledge of PC and Macmillan, but my experience is as true as yours.

I never denied your experience, though I doubt it's as deep as mine - I've known Macmillan for 30 years; I've met some amazing people, doing an amazing job. I've met scores of people who have much to thank Macmillan for (and many who have said so). I've met many people who had a comfortable death, thanks to the care, skills, and experience of Macmillan nurses. But while Macmillan isn't perfect - no organisation built on human beings ever can be - there's plenty of evidence, not just my experience and opinion, that says they're a great organisation.
Of course you can disagree. Of course you can quote your limited experience as an excuse to criticise, unfairly, the whole organisation. Of course you can say they're useless without even an example to back up your claims. Why not? That's entirely your right. And your choice. Go for it.
Or you could do the human thing and simply put in a complaint, and have it investigated properly.
As it stands, your complaining says much more about you than it does about Macmillan. That's your choice too.
I have nothing else to say to you. Good Day.