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Home » Get support » Living with or beyond cancer

Macmillan and survivorship

Macmillan believes that people living with or beyond cancer, and their carers, should have easy access to high quality care, treatment and support to meet their medical, practical, emotional and financial needs, even years after treatment. They should be respected and included as equal members of society and be able to take as active a role as they wish in their care and treatment.

Jacqui's story

'As parents, we found it really hard to support our daughter with the emotional effects. There was no one in the area to support us, or her, and the only way forward was by doing all the research myself and then setting up our own local support group. Macmillan gave us a grant towards the costs, and at our first meeting all our hard work was rewarded; six families came along for the support they were lacking too.'

A teenager affected by cancer

How should we support people living with or beyond cancer?

We believe there are a number of ways to achieve this, and that all people living with or beyond cancer should have access to the following:

  • A post-treatment assessment, care plan and appropriate medical, practical and emotional services for everyone who finishes treatment or is diagnosed with active, progressive or recurrent cancer 
  • High-quality information and the tools to help people support themselves at key stages throughout a person's cancer journey, 
  • Advice and support to help people get back to work
  • Support for people experiencing late effects of treatment
  • Support for carers, including assessment of their needs leading to appropriate support 
  • Involving people living with or beyond cancer in the development of services
  • Health care, social care and voluntary organisations working more closely together to help support people living with or beyond cancer

What is Macmillan doing already?

Find out how Macmillan is working with the UK governments to support people living with or beyond cancer, or download our new survivorship publication, Two Million Reasons [PDF, 756kb]

You can also talk to other people affected by cancer in our Share forum on living with or beyond cancer, or you can sign up to attend a self management course on our Learn Zone.