For those of you who haven’t been with us from the beginning or who don’t know the story behind WCSUK then let me give you a brief run down.
I started the organisation in April 2011 after having been diagnosed with womb cancer in Dec. 2009. I went looking for support and couldn’t find anything specifically for womb cancer so decided to start something myself and so on 11th April 2011, Womb Cancer Support UK was born.
It started off as a support group on FB but quickly grew when it became apparent that there was a lack of awareness around this cancer despite it being the most common gynaecological cancer.
6 years later WCSUK has grown and we are now so much more than just a support group. We have almost 2,500 likers on the FB page, plus over 170 lovely ladies in the private support group; a well-used website and twitter feed and we have sent out over 9,000 awareness leaflets up and down the country (including some to US & Canada)
I have been asked several times why WCSUK hasn’t become a charity, and although I have considered this a couple of times, to be honest I already devote several hours a day to running and promoting the organisation and taking on the status of a charity would mean a lot more work for me and I’m just not physically able to do that anymore. Plus living as I do on a small island off the west coast of Scotland, getting anywhere by public transport is a nightmare so travelling to conferences etc is out of the question.
There is so much that goes on "behind the scenes" so to speak that most people don't see. I write blog posts for our own website and guest posts for others; I network a lot on Twitter to connect with other organisations and people to spread the word about womb cancer; I am constantly searching for relevant articles to share; but for most of the women who come to us the private support group is what matters to them the most. A private space to share their worries and get support (and offer it) from others who know what it feels like to have womb cancer.
So, WCSUK will remain a not for profit organisation that is committed to supporting women who have been diagnosed with womb cancer and also to raising much needed awareness of this cancer. With over 9,300 women diagnosed in 2014 (and numbers rising by about 10% a year according to CRUK) it is shocking that there is no dedicated national awareness campaign for womb cancer.
We are lucky to have a small group of dedicated women within the organisation who help us raise awareness and together we have achieved a lot of the past 6 years but we have so much more to do. Please join us and help us spread the word about womb cancer – it can, and does affect women of all ages. None of us ever thought it would happen to us, but it did. Please don’t let it happen to you.
Be womb cancer aware.
Kaz xx