Wednesday 27 July 2011

We're here for you!

One thing that has really amazed me since I set up the support page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Womb-Cancer-Support-UK/122733007804817 is just how willing the women are to open up and share their experiences with each other. Because a lot of the information being shared was of a personal and delicate nature, we also set up a closed group on FB so that the posts didn't show up in everyone's profiles!!! This way, everyone can talk freely and openly about the more intimate issues surrounding hysterectomies; treatment and emotional issues.

Its become very clear that this kind of support group has been needed for some time, as to my knowledge we are the only womb specific support group in the UK.

We have recently been made aware by one of our members, Katherine, of a research project being carried out by Dr Patricia Ellis at Hammersmith Hospital into womb cancer in the under 40's. You can find out more info about the research here https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=145577162187068

Because funding for projects is often difficult to come by, Debra set up a justgving page to collect donations - http://www.justgiving.com/Debra-Parry0 and I have decided to put my jewellery making skills to good use and have set up a page on FB to sell items with the proceeds going to the research project aswell.

If you fancy doing a spot of early Christmas shopping then you can check out the goodies on offer here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Womb-Cancer-Support-UK-Fundraising-page-for-Research/247340318617259

We've also got something really exciting to tell you about - but I'm going to save that for my next post! So make sure that you spread the word about us, and remember "NO-ONE FIGHTS ALONE".

Saturday 16 July 2011

No-one fights alone!

When I was diagnosed with womb cancer in late Dec 2009 I was in complete shock. The diagnosis came out of the blue, and I was immediately told that a hysterectomy was scheduled for me on 24th January. As you can imagine, it was a bleak Xmas and New Year in our house that year.
I spent most of the holidays searching the internet for information and found a few good sites like Cancer Research UK and Macmillan but what I really wanted was support from other women that had gone through what I was going through and I couldn't seem to find it!

I had my hysterectomy and that was then followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. My treatment finally ended on 12th July 2010.

What then! Try and get back to normal! But what is normal when you've had cancer? Things can never go back to the way they were before I got that phone call.

So after a few months of recuperation, I started to think back to how it had been at the very beginning and remembered how scared and alone I felt. I was sure that there must be other women out there who felt the same so I decided to start an online support group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/WombCancerSupportUK?fref=ts

I was right; there were other women out there who felt the way I did! What was even more wonderful was that there were women out there who had gone through it all and were prepared to offer help and advice to those just starting on this long journey! I asked one of them, Debra, to help out as admin on the main FB page, and this was soon joined by a closed chat group where the women could talk in complete privacy about things.

We now have over 870 women on the main support page and there are 117 in the chat group.

In an effort to reach out to other women with womb cancer who want support we are on twitter https://twitter.com/#!/WombCancerUK and I shall also be using this blog as well as the main FB page to share links, advice, latest research and other interesting bits of info about womb cancer.

If you know of anyone who needs some support, then please share any of the links above.

Much love, Kaz xx