Helping Others
I am always so surprised at rare cancer patients when they believe that they have no information that would help another person with their cancer. That is so wrong!
Your own personal experiences can help others with your cancer. Online support groups allow us all to share our personal diagnosis and treatment experiences. If we do that, after a while, patterns start to emerge. Patterns that tell us if a particular treatment may or may not work for our cancer.
And our personal experiences of how we got through a particular treatment can help others. We all have a way of learning some simple techniques that helps us. Others may not have figured that out yet. If you share your technique, they might be able to use it to help them. You also offer hope to others by sharing your own survivorship.
Lastly, the group itself may sometimes help a clinician or researcher access the sheer patient numbers required for clinical studies. This could help them evaluate a prospective treatment or disease aspect.
Your participation in a group may possibly help someone to survive their disease, or could even help a researcher to beat the disease. Please, don’t ever think you have nothing worthwhile to share. With rare cancers, all information is worthwhile!