Your cancer story

[Guest guest]

Dear All

I hope you don't mind me posting in here, but I am seeking help on a

cancer related matter - in fact your experiences as a cancer patient

or carer. Sorry about the long message, but I hope it makes things

clearer.

My name is Ray and I work as a volunteer on a Cancer Nursing website

(www.CancerNursing.org) that provides free online cancer courses for

nurses. We launched the site last year and have received such

overwhelming feedback from over 4000 nurses in over 60 countries

that we have set up as a registered UK charity.

The courses enable nurses to study in their own time and at their

own pace, at any place where they can connect to the Internet. Here

are two sample learner comments:

______________________________

" As a student nurse hoping to specialise in oncology, your courses

are a great opportunity to work at my own pace.

The course content is very comprehensive and I have learned things

that will improve not only my practical training but my

communication with patients and their families.

I shall certainly be 'spreading the word'! "

______________________________

" This is my first time doing a course on the Internet. I have found

the Cancer of the Oesophagus course very comprehensive and easy to

manage and most of all there is no time limit to when I have to

complete the course.

I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

I think more courses like this should be designed in order to

promote more learning opportunities for health care workers to learn

at their own pace.

I would like to thank all the course team members who had

contributed in producing such a comprehensive and educational course

on Cancer of the Oesophagus.

I am looking forward to many other courses in the future. "

_______________________________

Anyway, the reason I am posting this message is to seek help from

any cancer patient or carer that would be prepared to write about

their experience. An integral part of our free courses are the 'Case

Study' sections where a patient details their cancer 'journey'. This

provides nurses with a real-life scenario and helps bring together

all of the course content. The feedback we gather from the nurses

suggests that the stories are one of the key parts of the course.

I would dearly like to hear from anyone who is prepared to put their

story on paper (electronic of course, it does not matter where in

the world you are based), and allow nurses from across the world to

read it and learn from it. We can anonymise the case if you wish.

I would provide help and guidance all of the way.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you could help or would like

to discuss further what is involved. My email address is ray @

cancernursing . org

Alternatively, you might wish to ask someone you know, who would

make a good 'case study'.

The more nurses can understand the patient and the carer's

experience the better care can be offered.

Very best wishes to you all.

Ray