Your Thoughts & Ideas

[Nikki_YAC]

This is the place to express your thoughts and ideas about how this this group could work... Whacky and left-field suggestions encouraged! 🙂

[Nikki_YAC]

The things I would like to see on happening for this group include: 'Live Chats' where we can talk to each other in real time a 'YAC Newsletter' you can sign up for and receive all the latest news a 'Lets meet Up' link where YACs can express interest in meeting other YACs in there local area face to face for a cuppa a closed 'Online Support Groups' that you can join and facilitated by CC Support Staff in a fun and safe atmosphere a 'YAC Resources and Info' link with things like statistics, media news, YAC services etc. Nikki

[stevec]

These are great ideas Nikki and I'd love to see them all implemented. I guess the next step is getting more people in the group and I suppose that's a matter of time, but I think it would be a great benefit if we could get some sort of advertising out there... like posters in hospital wards/clinics etc, recommendations from health care providers etc. Honestly, I think health care providers need to push these things more. When I was diagnosed by my surgeon he said 'germ cell cancer, look it up on the internet' and I did. I went straight to wikipedia and google, got a lot of bad news and swore never to look up anything cancer related on the internet again. Its taken me about 18 months to get over it and since then I've found this site, and other fantastic ones like planetcancer.org and tc-cancer.com, that would have helped me out greatly back then. I've noticed that the cancer council now has a kiosk at the hopsital I was treated at, its great to see the CC getting more of a presence there. Hopefully we can use things like that to push this group.

[AmandaC]

Nikki, I agree with Steve it will be great to see these things implemented. There was no information given to me about cancer, coping with cancer ect when I was diagnosed and it is the worst thing to battle alone. I think putting up posters, talking to care providers and making sure YAC are aware of the resources available to them. I also love the idea of local meet ups, making us more like a community 🙂

[Nikki_YAC]

Hey thanks Steve and Amanda for your input here. great suggestions and i am so with you on the whole 'accessing information' or BIG lack of it that exists ATM. SO my thoughts are... i think once we have some more exciting new functionalities set up in this new YAC Social Group, we work out a way to promote this service. i.e. poster campaign in the hospitals, awareness campaign for GP's etc etc.... I am having a meeting with the CC this week about all this. I will keep you guys posted on any new advancements. Until then, if you have any more ideas, shoot them this way and feel free to invite anyone you know to join this group. I will be doing an invite campaign once i know exactly what functions this group will have or have coming along in the not too distant future 🙂

[stevec]

Hey Nikki, I've been that another way this group could work is by establshing its users online identities a bit more. I'm not saying that people should actually identify themselves, but maybe we could expand on our profile pages a bit in that way that I2y or planet cancer has (i.e facebook style) by adding photo albums, message wall, favourite movie/song lists etc. Maybe we could also add some kind of signature to our messages that gives a basic summary of why where here. I know this sounds a little inane but I think it could add a bit of value as people will get to know each other better and new users will be able to get to know everyone more quickly.

[Nikki_YAC]

hi guys, just a quick update so you know how things are moving forward for our site.... I have had a meeting with Emma the CC Communications manager this week re further developments of the YAC site. She will take a peep at our suggestions, check if and what can be done (pending on budget and department resources) and post up a response that should answer all our questions. Great to see that CC are interested in expanding the functionalities and helping YACs to communicate and link in new ways using IT technology :) Nikki

[MissRen]

Hi everyone. These are fantastic ideas. I really like the idea about posters. Since my diagnosis I have learnt that there are soooo many types of cancer. I think by putting a face and story to the disease in it's many forms it can have a huge impact.Over the years I had heard/read about celebrities who had breast cancer so when I was diagnosed I googled them to learn where they were at in their cancer journey. A non celebrity may be able to relate better to someone who has/had cancer who is also not a celebrity. 1 year ago if a had read about a 34 year old woman who was fit, liked to go out dancing, watched movies and read a lot of books who had cancer, I probably would've thought " She sounds like me, I should do a self examination" or something to that effect.

[Nikki_YAC]

Hey MissReena, its good to see that you think we need these things implemented on this site too. hopefully it won't be too long before we hear from the CC on what extra things they can do for us and we can all start spreading the word. maybe we could/should help the design a poster that we can use to help spread the word? Nikki

[AmandaC]

Nikki I like the idea of designing posters, I was a graphic designer for 4 years before changing to interiors. I am happy to help mock up a poster if you like! I'll bet there are lots of us with different areas of expertise to help your idea come to thrution 🙂