CANCER GHOSTING

CANCER GHOSTING

Cancer can be a very lonely place.

I read a newspaper article a little while ago about Cancer Ghosting. It would be good to see more coverage of this and more awareness. The piece was about a student with a brain tumour who gradually lost all his friends during his illness and just had his Mum left when he sadly passed away.

Hard as it is to believe, Cancer Ghosting is very real and incredibly it can happen with family as well as friends. When it’s mentioned in an online patient forum that I follow, it gets as many comments as any of the other topics that come up, and clearly many people find it very difficult in addition to the cancer itself.

Patients have told me they’ve never heard again from some friends after diagnosis and others that gradually drifted away. Sometimes people still respond but never get in touch. I’ve experienced it first hand, so I know it’s very real.

If you want to support someone with cancer it needn’t be awkward at all. A simple text, “How’s your treatment going?” is all that’s needed. Even if you only get a brief response, I guarantee they will really appreciate you getting in touch. If they’re not having treatment then maybe “I was thinking about you and just wondering how you are getting on?”