Helpline
Over the past year we have answered over 13,000 calls on our Helpline.
Although three quarters of people who phoned us called about themselves we also heard from others, including family members (12%) and...
At Breast Cancer Care we’re passionate about supporting nurses in the great job they do – caring for people who’ve been given the devastating news that they have breast cancer.
With their specialist knowledge of primary and secondary breast cancer, we know breast care nurses can...
We would like to apologise for the disruption caused over the last few days to the online community. Earlier this week, we relaunched the Breast Cancer Care discussion forum on our new website but unfortunately, we have experienced a number of technical difficulties since then.
We want to...
The Helpline will be closed on Monday 7th May for the bank holiday and reopens at 9am Tuesday 8th May when we resume our normal hours.
As of 5 May 2012, we’re going to be opening the Helpline...
This is a topic that is often discussed on the helpline. When hair starts to grow back after chemotherapy, it may have lost its original colour or have turned grey which can have a huge impact on confidence and self-esteem. So, for many women who regularly colour their hair, it can be very...
In January the Helpline answered 1,136 calls and 1,157 in February, plus we have already responded to 198 email enquiries.
During February 12% of calls to the Helpline were about side effects of treatment and 19% of emails were about breast awareness; these were the top topics for...
Most of us are familiar with the three main risk factors for developing breast cancer: being female, increasing age and a significant family history. But, as we keep hearing in the news, an increasing number of other risk factors are being identified. People living longer is one of them (we know...
Being diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy is luckily not common, but it can happen. This can be very difficult as you may be dealing with the joy of having a baby while getting the news about a potential life threatening illness.
There may be difficult decisions to be made and...
During 2011 our free and confidential Helpline answered 13,399 calls; 2.5% more calls were answered than in 2010.
Nearly 56% of our callers were aged between 40 and 69 years old, with 52% of email enquiries coming from that age group.
The top five reasons why callers phone...
We get a number of calls on the helpline from people taking aromatase inhibitors (AIs) such as letrozole, arimidex or exemestane as part of their treatment for breast cancer who are worried about their risk of osteoporosis asking what they can do about it.
Osteoporosis means ‘porous bones...
In January each year we send out a postal survey to everyone who calls the Helpline so please don’t be surprised if you get asked to participate if you ring in the next few weeks.
We’ve made the survey shorter this year, so it shouldn’t take you long to complete. We send you a freepost...
In this technological age we live in, we need to contact many different organisations in our daily lives – phone companies, banks, GP practices, hospitals. And often when you phone an organisation, you never quite know who is going to be on the other end of the line or whether they will need to...
During November our nurses and trained staff with experience of breast cancer answered 1,171 calls. We also saw a continued rise in the number of Ask the Nurse queries submitted via our website.
Sorry to anyone who struggled to get...
We’re still working to resolve the technical fault from yesterday which is affecting the Helpline phone lines.
This morning we have a limited service on the Helpline but there is no messaging. So if you can’t get through then please try again later in the day when we hope the fault will...
We’re very sorry but we are experiencing a technical fault with our phone system this morning which means the Helpline is unavailable at the moment. We’re trying to resolve this problem as soon as possible.
Please try the Helpline again later today when we hope to be open.
In the...
Each year we conduct a survey to find out what callers think about the Helpline service. This year 241 users responded and we carried out 10 telephone interviews. Here are a few of the highlights from the survey.
How...
October was a busy month for our Helpline team with 1,271 calls answered by our nurses and trained staff with experience of breast cancer.
People from all age groups use our Helpline; the largest group of callers during October was those aged between 50 and 59 years old, they accounted...
It’s the time of year when flu jabs are being offered by GP surgeries. We get many calls on the Helpline from people who are concerned about having a flu jab in their ‘arm at risk’ after breast surgery or questioning whether they can have the jab whilst they are undergoing chemotherapy.
...
Although we do a considerable amount of work raising the breast awareness and early detection message throughout the year, the workshops delivered by the Breast Health Promotion (BHP) team are in greatest demand during...
When the shock of a breast cancer diagnosis affects a family, one of the most difficult things to do is tell other members of the family, especially the children.
On the Helpline, we are often asked about the best way to...
A new search category, specialist clinics, will be launched on our map of breast cancer services next week (Monday 26 September).
The map of services is an interactive tool, designed to...
I'm delighted to welcome you to our new Helpline blog.
The Helpline was one of Breast Cancer Care’s first services and it was set up back in the early 1970s. When our founder Betty Westgate was discharged without any...
Quite a large proportion of our Helpline calls are from people who are worried that they might have breast cancer. Often they might have noticed a symptom but are not sure if they should bother their doctor about it.
We...
It’s that time of year when we start to think about going on holiday and flying off to some sunshine.
Last year we had a number of enquires to our Helpline and Ask the Nurse...
Due to the forthcoming Bank Holiday weekend, our Helpline and Ask the Nurse email service will be operating under revised opening hours. Take a look below to see when these...
