Mixing friendships with cancer

Losing friendships due to something you can't control is hard, it is as if they can't accept the new you anymore. Cancer has put a strain on many of my friendships. Before I got cancer, I had my two best friends and I had several other close friends. My two best friends are absolutely amazing, they have stuck by me throughout and they make me feel normal again. However, my other friends distanced themselves from me, and now when I speak to them it is as if I am a stranger, they can barely even talk to me! Cancer is one of them things, even though it is common it is extremely feared of, so I think some of my friends just are not sure what to say to me anymore.

Although I have lost friends, I have also made friends. There have been people who have reached out to me and they have been so supportive. It definitely shows how amazing some people can be, my close friends didn't bother with me, yet a total stranger did...

Friendship advice

Regular meet-ups with friends- Cancer can be such a lonely place, so regularly meeting up with your friends is a great idea! I see my friends every week and it is so fun & gives me a bit of normality.

Losing friends- It is tough losing friends over cancer, as you can't help it. However, the way I see it is that if they are so shallow to stop being friends with you due to cancer, they aren't worth your friendship & they obviously are not your real friends.

Fake friends- I have found that some people who weren't even my friends before cancer, started messaging me saying how sorry they were for me and how they would be there for me and would visit me. I understand people want to support me, but all I needed right then were my real friends. And most of the people who messaged me just wanted my friendship for popularity, so they could say "I went and visited Ellie today, I'm such a great person." Also, none of those people ever messaged me again after a month or so after my diagnosis, so they are definitely FAKE FRIENDS!!!

Cancer friends

I find having friends who have cancer really helps a lot. My friends are amazing, but they can't completely understand what I am going through. I have a few friends from the teen cancer ward, but mostly via social media. Social media is an amazing way to find people the same age as you going through cancer. I have met so many people, and most of them I still talk to! I love talking to them as they completely understand what I am going through.

I would definitely suggest making friends with children your age in your cancer hospital ward, or use social media. To find cancer people on social media join Facebook groups, and I recommend finding cancer kids on childhood cancer awareness Instagram pages.

This blog post is a collab with one of my amazing cancer friends who I met on social media, she is called Evie, she has Hodgkin's lymphoma. Like me, Evie definitely knows the strain on friendships with cancer in the mix, so we worked together and we both made a blog post about Mixing friendships and cancer, go check out her blog too!
Evie's blog: http://loveeviex.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1
Evie's instagram: @evie_shallom

'Friends don't let friends fight cancer alone!"

Thank you for reading and I really hope this blog post helped you.

Ellie xxx