Live Better With: Too young for cancer? We get it!

We are delighted to be partnering with Shine Cancer Support for their annual Shine Connect event – the UK’s only conference for young adults with cancer.

Ceinwen Giles, Shine Cancer Support director, tells us what’s on the agenda:

While cancer is usually thought of an “older person’s disease”, at Shine Cancer Support we know that there are thousands of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s  in the UK who are diagnosed with cancer every year. Too old for “teenage and young adult services” which typically end at age 24, but often feeling too young for mainstream support, there is a huge gap in support that we aim to fill.

Issues like returning to work, sex, dating, fertility and supporting young children come up a lot in our online groups and at our meetups around the country (if you haven’t joined a Shine Network, check out our website and see if there’s one near you!). They are also issues that we wanted to give people the opportunity to talk over in a bit more depth and in 2016 we launched Shine Connect, the UK’s only young adult cancer conference.  Now in its third year, we’re more excited than ever for this gathering of young adults with cancer, their partners and family, and interested healthcare professionals. We’re holding Shine Connect in London on May 19th this year – so if you’re not at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding, do join in!

What’s on the agenda? First of all, we’ve got a great marketplace that will have lots of great organisations there – not least, Live Better With Cancer! But more importantly, we’ve tried to create a day that allows people to meet one another, chat, laugh – and hear from experts. With sessions on topics such as building emotional resilience, understanding and managing fatigue and the always tricky dating after cancer (when do you tell someone you’re dating that you’ve had cancer?!), we’re expecting a full house.

And just so it’s not all cancer-focused, we’ve also got some drop-in juggling sessions (juggling is good for getting those brain synapses firing!), therapy dogs available for a cuddle, and massages courtesy of the Complementary Therapies crew from the Royal Free Hospital. We’re expecting Shine Connect 2018 to be bigger and better than ever and we’d love to see you there.

For more information and to register, visit www.shineconnect.co.uk or drop us a line at connect@shinecancersupport.org.