Shine’s Circles Programme | Guest Post

22 April 2023 — david-allen

Being diagnosed with cancer as a young adult can feel particularly isolating. If your diagnosis is an incurable one, it can be even more difficult to meet people facing similar issues – living with an enormous amount of uncertainty, missing out on socialising, talking to your young children about what’s happening, starting or progressing a career while taking time out, fertility issues, dating with cancer. It’s so important that there is a place to talk about these challenges with people who really do get it.

Shine Cancer Support offers a range of support and information to people in their 20s, 30s and 40s living with and beyond cancer. As a charity founded and run by people who’ve been through cancer as young adults, our support is designed around real experiences and what we know helps.

Shine’s Circles programme offers participants an opportunity to meet with other people their age, living with an incurable diagnosis and going through similar challenges. During this six-week online course you can connect with others while discussing issues such as living with uncertainty, relationships, how we process grief, and how our priorities change after cancer. Realising you’re not alone in what you’re facing can make a difficult time just that bit easier.

“The group was carefully curated by the programme organisers which meant that everyone there was looking to achieve the same thing, and the group gelled really well. The people were the best bit of the programme, and I think a lot of work went into getting that right! It has been a really important part of the past 6 weeks, and did a lot to make me feel connected to other people going through what is an otherwise lonely and isolating experience.”

Circles Participant 2022

The programme is open to anyone in their 20s, 30s or 40s in the UK who has had a diagnosis of incurable cancer. We know that the need for support doesn’t follow the same timeline for everyone and so you’re welcome to apply for the course whether you have just been diagnosed or if you’ve been living with cancer for many years. You can read all about Circles here, find out when the next course is running and how to apply, and read testimonials from previous participants.

If you have any questions at all or just fancy a chat about the Circles programme please do get in touch on clare@shinecancersupport.org

“Meeting other people who were going through a very similar experience to me has made me feel less isolated. Speaking with people who really got how I felt, and hearing about their experiences was so helpful. The programme taught me lots of new things in a really supportive environment – such as acknowledging what I’ve lost from my life as a result of having cancer – which was freeing to recognise. I think the programme should be promoted as an uplifting experience. Before starting it I wondered if it might be very upsetting, seeing other young people battling an incurable disease, and whilst there were elements of that, I left every session uplifted, supported and heard.”

Circles Participant Sept 2022