It was a bit hectic to keep up with all the various threads, as these things always are, but with most people using the appropriate hashtag its easy after the event to go back and read through all the threads and catch up.
It soon became quite clear that many of us who have been diagnosed with cancer feel very let down by the system once treatment has ended.
One word that kept cropping up was “normality” and when will it return, if ever? Some of those taking part had tried to find a new “normal” but others had struggled to come to terms with the loss of their previous normality.
Support, or the lack of it, was another subject that was talked about. Most agreed that there was very little of it after treatment had ended and many felt abandoned and left to get on with things themselves. This is something that I have often written about as my own experience was quite traumatic and the reason why WCSUK exists.
It seems that many people are turning to social media for support in the absence of anything in the real world, which is good, as on the one hand as it means that the support is there when people need it, even if it is at 3am in the morning! But is also shows that there is a serious lack of understanding and acceptance that thing’s do not suddenly go back to normal (there’s that word again!!) when treatment has ended.
It was good to network with some people that I hadn’t come across before and I am looking forward to the next chat which will be in January 2015.
You can read the full transcript of the twitterchat here
xx Kaz xx