Cancer Survivors Network: Click and Connect to Others Who’ve “Been There”

Highlights The Cancer Survivors Network is a community full of knowledgeable, kind, and caring people you’ll want to get to know. Click here to see all of the easy-to-use, interactive features of the Cancer Survivors Network Web site.

Whether you were recently diagnosed with cancer, are finished with treatment, or are a caregiver of someone with cancer, the American Cancer Society Cancer Survivors Network^® (CSN) has so much to offer you.

These days, people are very familiar with social networking Web sites like MySpace and Facebook, but the Cancer Survivors Network was way ahead of the curve, providing support for people affected by cancer for nearly a decade.

This free service of the American Cancer Society was created by and for cancer survivors, caregivers, family members, and friends for the purpose of sharing their cancer-related experiences, supporting one another, and exchanging practical tips learned from living with the challenges of cancer – all at your fingertips, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Recently redesigned, the CSN site now offers new features and functionality. Its most popular feature is its wide variety of active discussion groups and real-time chatting, which affords cancer patients, survivors, and their supporters a private, secure way to communicate with one another to share common experiences. Similar to other social networking sites, users control access to their personal information, allowing them to be as anonymous or as identifiable as they wish.

Other features of the site include personal Web space in which members can tell their stories, share photos, blogs, art, poems, resources, audio, and more. The site’s “Celebrate Life” gallery features photos and information about Cancer Survivors Network members, and the search functions allow users to find others using specific criteria, including cancer type, age, and gender. The Cancer Survivors Network even offers a private and secure internal messaging system so members may communicate with one another without sharing any personal identifiers such as their email address.

The Cancer Survivors Network is one of the many resources the American Cancer Society offers to guide you through every step of the cancer experience. Together with millions of supporters, the Society is saving lives and helping people stay well, helping people get well, finding cures, and fighting back. To join the Cancer Survivors Network, click here.

“The greatest strength of the Cancer Survivors Network is the people who use it. People at various stages of cancer treatment and their families and friends really make the site what it is by contributing their own stories of survival and hope,” said Terry Music, interim chief mission officer at the American Cancer Society. “There are 11 million cancer survivors in this country, and one-third of Americans have served as an unpaid caregiver to a relative or friend facing cancer. Our goal is to provide a robust online community that has something to offer each person.”