A simple idea, most Hopsices have a lottery running ,payable by direct debit every month, why not donate a few quid every month and if you win, perhaps either buy more tickets, or donate a percentage back to the Hospice as a gift.

This is very true and also a very good idea!! Hospices are one of those things that a lot of people don’t know about. Support your local one, as you will be lost if it went!!

Great post Phil… for some reason its a bit dusty in our living room right now…

Macmillan and the charity run hospice were epic in looking after my dads last three days…

I feel a yard sale and donation coming on.

+1
Mother died at young age (50’s) of bladder cancer.
Do what you can and what you feel comfortable with.

I’m a doc and try to go the extra mile for cancer patients to ensure they get all they need/want/deserve, that’s my bit and i guess my responsibility.

…and probably the reason i don’t post on singletrackworld much these days, cos i got sick of the “NHS/gp’s are shit” brigade on here.

Anyway, thoughts to the people affected by cancer.

We can’t fault the help and support for Mrs C, NHS and Macmillan going above and beyond.

For my own experience my Mum’s decline was terrifyingle fast, too fast for Macmillan to be able to do much for us really, we were chasing to keep up with her cancer until she died. Marie Curie nurses were though a godsend. They basically sit with the patient over night. Doesn’t sound much, but it allows you to get some sleep, they tell you a little bit about what’s going on – reassure you if you’re worried about something, they were great with fitting into the house/routine, didn’t mind the dog coming in and out of the room, were great with my dad. One nurse who was with us also gave me the confidence and info to more to help my mum. That they have to be funded by charity is frankly insane.

That said an uncle of mine fought blood cancer for years and I know they found Macmillan to be of great value.

Re the NHS comment from from the doc above, Our district nurses and care workers were also absolutely bloody outstanding, might not be as good in an urban area, but out in the dales they’re great (not sure why i think that but i do). The whole thing together meant we were never more than 2 hrs from a nurse being with us. The NHS isn’t perfect, it can be better, but we are very lucky to have it. I also get very annoyed with general anti NHS statements.

I personally suspect Mum waited to go until there were nurses present. Just a gut feeling but the timing seemed more than coincidence, and she would have wanted us not to be scared and to have people there who knew what was going on.

Just to add a slightly different perspective, I am involved with an advice charity and Macmillan provide some funding to us to provide welfare benefits and money advice to cancer patients and their families. As well as the obvious health and emotional impacts, cancer can have significant financial implications for families, for example loss of wages, which can add to the stress of fighting the illness. Accessing appropriate welfare benefits can make life a lot easier for the patient and their family and help them focus their physical and emotional resources on fighting this terrible disease.

I think this far-sighted approach clearly demonstrates the value of Macmillan to cancer patients, their families and their friends!

What a Great post, just reading this waiting to hear how my wife’s mastectomy went today. Good work fella! For what it’s worth I can’t recommend the service offered by Macmillan enough. They are an awesome source of clear and simple information at what can be a pretty overwhelming time.

My sister had thyroid cancer. Followed by eight weeks in the ICU after complications of the surgery. Four months later she is diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic melanoma. She’s 44 with four children under 10.

She won the braf lottery and is taking a drug costing £250 per day for a target that wasn’t known about 10 years ago. Part of my research involves looking at survival curves for cancer 😥 . There are some true successes, but for other cancers, I’m afraid it’s still very early days.

My donations go to the local hospice, but I can’t understand why they aren’t funded properly. Macmillan have helped her, but local support from knowledgeable friends and family are the mainstay.

Historically, lost a great uncle to cancer and my grandmother to leukaemia 10 years ago this year. My great aunt has had cancer return for the fourth time and my mum and is in remission currently.

Finding people’s stories here terrifically moving. Macmillan were great in our experience with my grandmother as was the local hospice.

Thinking of all of you who have gone through this or are going through this now.

Take care,

J

not looking too good for my Dad now, matter of weeks.

My Mum was a macmillan nurse for a large part of her career. I could never really understand how she managed to do it, incredible job to do.

Now she’s just recovering from surgery to remove a cancer herself – prognosis is good thankfully/hopefully but it is scary stuff.

Written and rewritten this I don’t know how many times, can’t really find the right words…

Suffice to say, Macmillan is a great resource but don’t forget your local hospices because they do a fine job too. I guess any money any of us gives helps make things just that little bit less awful, somehow.