Cancerbackup: Reducing fear & uncertainty

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The best cancer information for everyone.
Cancerbackup has merged with Macmillan. Together we can provide a wealth of high quality information about cancer.

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Reducing fear and uncertainty for all

People access information in different ways; cancer affects all types of people. We are committed to ensuring that our information is available in a range of styles and formats to meet their needs.

Over 2200 teenagers are diagnosed with cancer each year. Our survey of teenage cancer patients discovered that most find it difficult to find information appropriate to someone of their age. They all agreed that there was a need for a cancer information website specifically aimed at teenagers. We wanted to fill that gap by developing a site that teenagers with cancer could really call their own.

We recruited the help of a group of teenagers who volunteered to give us ideas and feedback. They told us what they wanted the site to look like and what sort of content they wanted our specialist nurses to produce.

The result is TIC (Teen Info on Cancer) at www.click4tic.org.uk: a place where teenagers can find the facts on cancer and its treatments; get advice on how to cope; and share their stories and tips with other teenagers. The site was officially launched in May 2005. A big thank you goes to ICAP for donating over £165,000 to fund the development of the site.

We aim to make our information accessible to everyone who needs it. This year we have begun the development of a range of cancer information in audio to support anyone who requires an alternative to print. Over the next three years we will be producing over 40 titles, based on our range of booklets and factsheets.

This year also saw the development of a touch-screen kiosk service. Touch-screens are a great way to extend access to information, particularly as users don’t need to have any IT skills. Touch-screen information content is drawn directly from our website, so it meets our usual high quality standards and is kept continually up-to-date. We will be piloting the scheme in 2005/06 at locations across the country.

‘Children’s info tells you everything you already know and not what you want to know. Adults info is kept from you or is a bit hard to take in.’
Hodgkin’s disease patient, aged 13


Page last modified: 01 February 2007

Get support

Look for other people in the same situation on our What Now? community - read their blogs or talk to them in our chat rooms.

Find out about other ways to get support on the main Macmillan website.

This year...

  • Our survey of teenagers with cancer found that 64% said it was difficult to find information specifically aimed at them. 100% said there was a need for a teenage cancer information website.
  • We began a project to develop information in audio for people with a sight disability who are affected by cancer.
  • We created our new online touch-screen kiosk cancer information service.