Our Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) has worked tirelessly on our behalf, to set up a support group for metastatic prostate cancer sufferers and their families.
The group meets bi-monthly and is attended by anyone suffering from this condition (and their partners) for a chat, cup of tea, to gain help with problems or perhaps most importantly, mutual support.
Each meeting welcomes a guest speaker on a topic suggested by the group. My position as Chair has given me focus and a sense of purpose outside of my own illness.
I attended the very first Support meeting of our support group at the small hall at Ditton Community Centre, back in 2022. There was about six of us, some supported by their partners.
Our group has now grown to the point of filling the larger meeting room on a regular basis. We have regular speakers at our meetings, offering advise on diet, exercise, well being and support with holiday insurance. I have met a lot of people and new friends at this group who all support each other.
I am actively involved with fund raising along with a dedicated team to repay the care given to me at Maidstone Oncology Unit and make it easier for people being treated there.
When your husband/partner is told that his prostate cancer has spread it is very, very scary. The group is there for us all, both patient and partner, not only facilitating medical understanding but offering emotional support and friendship.
For me, this has been the most important part; mutual support. Someone is only ever a phone call or text away. But it’s definitely not a group wallowing in doom and gloom, the jokes and great sense of humour, is uplifting.
The journey would be much harder without the group.
I don’t join groups and this is one I did not want to go to. But when life takes you down a different path with a cancer diagnosis what do you do?
MTW Trust has a secret weapon, a CNS who gives you very important information, kindness and access to a group of patients and partners who are in the same situation as you.
I have worked in the medical field for 30 years and I thought I could contribute to this group, and I am so glad that I went to my first meeting. We met great couples who were not afraid to talk about cancer and the treatments we have all experienced which is difficult with friends.
I want to encourage others to join so we can support you and your partner.
When someone receives a diagnosis of incurable cancer, it is inevitably a very difficult time: the fear of the unknown, uncertainty for the future, a feeling of being alone.
When my wife and I first attended the group we were unsure whether it would be of any help, but we thought, why not? It cannot hurt to try? It has however, been a revelation. There are things that we cannot easily share with our friends and family without fear overloading them with our thoughts.
The group provides the forum to explore how to navigate through this condition, how to deal with aspects of it, and to allow us to share our own experiences with each other. It has become a meaningful part of our lives, and a source of new friends, who will understand our situation completely.
When I worked I had structure and motivation. I had recently retired when my husband revived his diagnosis so the idea of having a carefree retirement full of opportunities to learn new things and contribute to wider society seemingly disappeared. I was wrong. Being part of the group has given me opportunities to support my husband, contribute to the new charity and be welcomed into a new group of friends. Not what I had planned, but a very positive side effect of the worst diagnosis.