Join an Online Cancer Community

As we learn how to adapt to life during the coronavirus pandemic, most of us are spending more time online. There are wonderful resources and sites available; you can listen to music, tour museums, find groups organized around all kinds of interests. For those of us who are living with cancer, it is a particularly important time to connect with each other. We are feeling more vulnerable and more isolated than usual, and our community can offer splendid support.

One of the wonderful things about BIDMC's Cancer Center is our commitment to caring for the whole person. Hopefully, no one is ever described or seen as "the colon cancer in chair 8" but as "Ms. X who is 50, married, has young adult children, works as a librarian, and is excited about her daughter's upcoming wedding." We always remember that cancer does not happen in a vacuum, but comes into someone's life who is already full and busy. A new serious medical diagnosis is a heavy burden under any circumstances.

Over the many years of my career at BIDMC, I have been devoted to developing a sense of community, to connecting our patients to each other, and trying to relieve the inevitable sense of being alone and different that cancer brings. This is why, a couple of years ago, we began the BIDMC Cancer Community. 

Open to anyone, the BIDMC Cancer Community is free and simple to join. Just click on the link to sign up, pick a username that can be real or imagined, and start connecting. There are almost 50 groups for most kinds of cancer. It is simple to communicate with others who share your diagnosis, are maybe going through the same treatment, and certainly have the same worries.

The BIDMC Cancer Community welcomes anyone with cancer, their families and their friends. The straight-forward website is always open and is a great place to share information, ask questions, discuss experiences and feelings. Over recent months, this has become a busier conversation, and right now seems an ideal time to try it out.

People living with cancer have even more worries about our current public health crisis than do others. What will this mean for my treatment schedule? Do I have to be even more careful about going out or even bringing in packages? Should I wear a mask and gloves whenever I leave my house? I have been getting through the chemo by concentrating on a planned vacation, and now I don't even know if that will be possible. I am afraid to go into the hospital or my doctor's office even though they are doing all kinds of things to keep it as safe as possible. Am I alone with these feelings?

Check out ASCO's Cancer.net site, which has more information and suggestions for online cancer support groups.