BREAST CANCER SUPPORT GROUPS IN QUEENSLAND & Northern NSW
for the ladies living in Queensland I started a group on the Gold Coast in June 2019 and have drafted a File of local and more distant B C Support groups particularly in SE Qld. Since Covid-19 a number of groups have ceased meeting but most still do so.
Please check though this list (and please remember I drafted this list (in my spare time lol) so its not necessaritly 100% accurate. We have 268 members in our Gold Coast group called "Womens Cancer Support GC Group" since June 2019 and all are undergoing some form of treatment at present. We had 15 ladies join in four days last week so Breast Cancer is NOT reducing by y numbers. I highly recommend you contact the group in your area and if there isn;t one start one. Its easy just set up a facebook page and then pop a post on here and the other two bigger BC facebook pages that have 2.5k members and leave it as aonline goup if so or do like we;ve done have meetups and various events for your own group and advertise the other appropriate events in your area that might suit the lovelies in your group. We are very fortunate here on the GC whilst we have NOT ONE McGrath Nurse we have three charities who do pamper days for ladies, we have the Look Good Feel Better Program online while offline during COVID-19, we have access to beautiful ponchos made by another charity to gift to our lovelies who have double mastectomies, and a library of wigs, caps, hats,scarves and various headwear for the lovelies when needed during chemo. We have done a lot of work to support the ladies and on our PRIVATE GROUP page we have lots of files fo information, including lists of questions suggested to ask your breast surgeon at initial appt then after surgery and questions for Oncologist, radiation oncologist etc. And our most import document is called NEWBIES. Where we list what we consider the initial info they need:- Show them the Questions files, tell them what we have in our library, inform the ladies of what is available to them in form of outside support (financial, wigs, pamper days, events) discounts and arrangements we have made with private radiation business to pay no gap, about the free buses, where to donate their hair BEFORE they have the first does of chemo, the offer of a poncho made of baby fleece for them to wear afger DX so the drains bandages etc can be checked with no fuss and they feel comfy warm and snuggly, etc etc. I guess if you start a support group in YOUR area just provice ehat you're comfortable with and sometimes others offer to help - Wr've got 6 admin for the page so that when people ask to join we are pretty able to approve within minutes. And I can only say how heart warming it is to hear the ladies chatting onlne and arranging to meetup for coffee etc.
Im thinking of starting a BUDDY system where the lovelies who have been with us since June can BUDDY with a newbie for a couple of months and maybe meetup or chat on the phone or message and SHOW them around the facebook page and ensure they get the most of the information BEFORE they need to. I think this BUDDY system would be good for both ladies as its a form for the original members to GIVE BACK and the new ladies are guided gently by one person through the start of their journey with the back of the whole group as support.
Wow his has been a long post but IMPORTANT in my mind. Imagine if you were given a buddy within hours of your diagnosis and they guided you through and became like a SPONSOR in AA. Then in turn others buddy another and so on and the newbie a year later is buddying a newbie - It would be a circle that would atutonatically reinvent itself each time a new member joined, one of the ladies who;ve been members for a while offers to BUDDY them. "Imagine". <3.
