Why Cancer Stories Matter

Why cancer support is important

Studies have found that social support is crucial to improving cancer patients’ overall well-being and quality of life. While patients undergoing treatment tend to receive support from cancer care teams, support groups, and online communities, for those who have ‘beaten’ cancer, the experience can look vastly different. 

Cancer survivors often receive less support since they are no longer in constant contact with their care team, and may be expected to return to their ‘normal’ lives once in remission. For individuals like Peter Dornan, a physiotherapist, writer, and prostate cancer survivor, insufficient support made managing treatment side effects particularly challenging.

Following the surgical removal of his prostate, Dornan developed his own program to resolve issues with incontinence, driven by the dearth of resources available to men who have survived prostate cancer. 

For others, remission can come with significant mental health challenges and little guidance on how to best overcome them. According to one lung cancer survivor’s story, Deb: “The most challenging aspect of being a cancer survivor is living with the fear of it coming back, as it is a constant in my mind. The slightest shortness of breath or a cough can put me on tenterhooks.”

This lack of support for cancer survivorship is exacerbated by the fact that survivors’ challenges are often invisible; lingering pain, fatigue, and social and mental health challenges are easier to overlook, as compared to the more conspicuous challenges that accompany active cancer treatment. The pressure to ‘bounce back,’ combined with a lack of guidance on nutrition, exercise, and social and mental health management, can also leave survivors exhausted, with nowhere to turn to for advice.

Cancer stories, which include patients’ and survivors’ accounts of diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship, can help address this gap. Studies have found that cancer stories, regardless of their format, are beneficial in supporting people with cancer. 

How cancer stories help

Stories can inform and educate those recovering from the disease. Resources like Our Cancer Stories offer detailed accounts of patients’ and survivors’ experiences, and can provide both practical guidance and emotional comfort. Their comprehensive database of over 500 stories ensures that patients and survivors can learn from the experiences of those who have been through situations that most closely resemble their own. Since cancer treatment and recovery can be quite specific based on an individual’s background, circumstances, and medical history, hearing from those who have made similar treatment decisions, experienced similar side effects, and walked the same path can be reassuring.

Such stories are meant to complement clinical care for those receiving treatment and serve as a starting point for those seeking advice once in remission. For instance, these stories may help readers understand the questions that are useful to ask doctors or set realistic expectations for treatment timelines. Patients’ advice, through responses to questions asking what they wish they’d known before treatment, or what they wish people knew about cancer survivorship, can guide and reassure those facing these challenges for the first time.

How cancer survivors can get involved

Cancer survivors and patients receiving treatment can begin by exploring stories that mirror their own circumstances. Our Cancer Stories features stories organised by cancer type. Each of these pages, such as those for colon cancer stories or prostate cancer stories, provides survivors and current patients with the option to filter stories by gender, cancer stage, and cancer subtype. Cancer survivors may also choose to contribute their own stories to Our Cancer Stories’ website. 

Cancer survivorship is a journey best travelled together. By contributing diagnostic, treatment, and survivorship experiences to Our Cancer Stories, cancer patients and survivors can provide much-needed support to others on the same path, ensuring that nobody has to navigate cancer alone.

This article is independent and not sponsored.

References

1. American Cancer Society. (2024, June 26). Social isolation and loneliness. Retrieved January 6, 2026, from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/side-effects/emotional-mood-changes/social-isolation-loneliness.html 

2. Andersen, B. L., PhD, & Dorfman, C., PhD. (2021, July 26). The Importance of Social Support for People with Cancer. Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM). Retrieved January 6, 2026, from https://www.sbm.org/healthy-living/the-importance-of-social-support-for-people-with-cancer 

3. Hofman, A., Zajdel, N., Klekowski, J., & Chabowski, M. (2021). Improving social support to increase QOL in lung cancer patients. Cancer Management and Research, Volume 13, 2319–2327. https://doi.org/10.2147/cmar.s278087 

4. Ruiz-Rodríguez, I., Hombrados-Mendieta, I., Melguizo-Garín, A., & Martos-Méndez, M. J. (2022). The importance of social support, optimism and resilience on the quality of life of cancer patients. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 833176. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.833176