The patient story is an incredibly important of the MySunrise experience because it allows us to help you hear real experiences from people in your area without all the medical jargon but with plenty of humanity, tips and lived experience. We are hugely grateful to our patients for being so brave and honest in sharing their experiences to help others starting out on their cancer journey.
Our Lead Patient Rep, Roland Monger, has his patient story featured on the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust version of the app and felt it was really important to share his experience. “I am convinced that the more we talk about cancer and the more we share our experiences, the less power cancer has. If you are a newly diagnosed cancer patient, hearing what others have been through before you can help you to feel less alone and give you the confidence you need to take on this fight”.
Roland’s experience of Stage 4 metastatic malignant melanoma has continued beyond the time he recorded his video with us but these snapshots in time are a really helpful resource for users of the MySunrise app. “Hearing from voices that sound like you or people that look like you takes away the fear of the unknown so it is really helpful for people to share their stories with all the emotions from the despair and panic of initial diagnosis to the stoicism of going through your own personal cancer journey and, hopefully, on to the positive feeling of getting the all clear or learning to live with cancer”.
Our patient stories contain some brilliant moments of wisdom and shared experience of cancer that will help those starting out on that path to better understand what they might expect on their journey. There is Stephen in Devon who had tongue cancer “I found it really helpful to have a little diary and set myself challenges like walking more to build up my strength. This allowed me to look back on the progress and see how far I’d come after my surgery and treatment”.
We’ve also heard from Anna in Cornwall who had cervical cancer “when I was told that I did have cancer I just went to the beach to get my head clear. That allowed me to get my thoughts in order before talking to my family and knowing what I was going to tell them. I was told the survival rate was low but I just focused on getting through the scans and that felt like I was doing something. When I got the scan to tell me that the cancer hadn’t spread, that was when I decided to tell my family. It was a relief but then also things got more serious because I had their worry to consider as well. But they helped me through the journey and I couldn’t have done it without them”.
Following on from our launch in Sandwell and West Birmingham, and also Wolverhampton we are delighted to add new patient story videos from some of our wonderful patients in the West Midlands.
Carol in Sandwell, “I had no symptoms, no lumps, nothing like that but I had the breast screening and then I got the letter that every woman dreads. My husband was with me when they told me I had breast cancer, he cried but I didn’t. I wanted to compose myself because I knew I was going on a long journey. The consultant told me I had to have my breast off but I just thought “if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes”. It had to be done to save my life and that’s how I tended to cope with it”.
These are real stories of real people going through cancer and they are all available for free on the MySunrise cancer companion app. So, whether you’re a cancer patient, carer, friend, family member or medical professional, please take a look and have a listen to the stories that really show the human side of a cancer diagnosis and what comes afterwards.
The stories can be accessed via the app or by visiting the videos page of our website.
