1 hour, 17 minutes ago
Janet Guttsman is bureau chief for Reuters in Canada, and
has worked for the company in Germany, Russia and the United
States. When she's not running the Canadian news file, she
enjoys long bicycling trips in Canada and beyond. In the
following story, she writes of the support she received
online after a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer.
TORONTO (Reuters) - "Forgive me a freakout moment here," I
wrote to a woman's-only Internet bicycling forum I've been
posting on for years. "I have to see a specialist for something
that they suspect is very early breast cancer."
It was my real friends who accompanied me to the medical
appointments after that initial shock, and held my hand when I
emerged from general anesthetic and surgery.
But in a world of instant Internet communications, a group
of women I have never met provided a second level of support as
I faced up to the diagnosis you never want to get.
The first replies to my post came within minutes, both from
women with stories of their own and from those offering
sympathy and emoticon hugs.
I don't know their real names, and they don't know mine,
yet over the next weeks and months this virtual support network
kept prodding me for news, and reminding me that they were
rooting for me at every step of the way.
"I've read that good quality chocolate has cancer-fighting
properties," one woman wrote with a big smiley face of
encouragement.
"Hmmm, funny, I was working away when something told me to
check the Women's Forum," another virtual friend replied.
"Aaah, yes. Someone said, 'chocolate'."
Christina Koenig, head of media relations for the web-based
support group Breast Cancer Network of Strength said Internet
resources could be a tremendous comfort to women facing scary
diagnoses like mine.
"You keep a brave face for your family and your friends and
workmates and for your children, and it's wonderful to be able
to talk to people like you who have been where you are now,"
she said. "It's anonymous, it's honest and it's immediate."
'TERRIBLE SISTERHOOD'
Network of Strength set up its own Internet forums last
month, supplementing a round-the-clock telephone support center
and offering women with a diagnosis of breast cancer a chance
to compare notes and experiences.
"It's a terrible sisterhood to be part of," said Koenig, a
former journalist who is herself a breast cancer survivor. "But
nobody understands it like someone who has been through it."
Dr Marisa Weiss, a Philadelphia-area breast cancer
oncologist and founder of a fact-filled website
breastcancer.org, said it was often easier for patients to seek
advice on the Internet than to go to hospital support groups,
which could take place at inconvenient times or in
hard-to-reach locations.
(Editing by Frances Kerry and Sara Ledwith)
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