About raising "awareness" on FB

[sensuallettuce]

Just had a couple of messages about the "fun game" on FB where "men will wonder what is going on with our status updates" by writing a colour or a piece of fruit or some bollocks on our wall to "raise breast cancer awareness".

AIBU to wonder how the hell this "raises awareness" or does anything other than irritate grumpy cows people like me and the "men" probably couldn't give a shit/don't even notice. Is FB the right forum for this and is just just me that this irritates the hell out of and will while it sweeps FB over the coming weeks.

Hate cancer status updates ("put this on your status for 1 hour to say you hate cancer" well I don't fucking love it do I?! ).

Hate copy and paste updates and hate RIP pages.

Want to raise awareness do the Race for Life like I did last year or get off bloody FB.

Sorry I do like FB because I'm sad and lonely to socialise of an evening but AIBU to think this is so lame and meaningless?!

Am glad people on here who have suffered cancer first hand share my views it convinces me I am right .

Am not glad that people on here are suffering cancer and hope they have a positive outcome and get better very soon.

I'm with most of you on this one, and I also speak as a cancer survivor.

The games and co really get on my nerves but I've never been able to tell my friends as I think they join in in good faith..

Zombie best of luck with the rest of your treatment, Herceptin will be a doddle after all the rest! ( I finished mine nearly 4 years ago)

YANBU. I absolutely hate those types of statuses and the implication that if you don't repost them you somehow don't "care"! My mother died of breast cancer, my dad currently has prostate cancer (and had another type of cancer ten years ago), even my sister had bloody skin cancer (just a mole luckily which was sliced off). I absolutely am aware of cancer and absolutely support fundraising and research but those ridiculous statuses do nothing to help cancer sufferers.

Zombie is going to step out of character and post in the first person now. (Zombie's 3rd person schtik is part of my coping mechanism.)

I am very lucky. The surgery "got" all the detectable cancer. My lymph nodes were clear, there was no vascular invasion and there was a clear margin around both of my breast tumours. But the cancer was aggressive hence they are throwing everything in the adjuvant therapy regime at me to catch any stray nasties that may have been / be floating around looking for a place to settle. I'm going through some unpleasant things but my prognosis is excellent.

My godson (age 47) was diagnosed a couple of months ago with metastatic carcinoma of unknown origin. They cannot locate the primary tumour but the metastases are on 4 vertabrae, several ribs, his left hip and femur, a couple of abdominal lymph nodes and 3 brain lesions. He had surgery which removed two tumours that were wrapped around his spinal cord. His cancer is so aggressive that MRI scans from 3 months prior to diagnosis didn't show those tumours. He has since had wound infection, pneumonia and the surgical wound has split open for the second time. Without chemo his life expectancy is 4 months. The wound problems and the pneumonia have eaten into those 4 months. Chemo is off the agenda until such time as the cancer itself is his only problem. It is highly unlikely that he will recover sufficiently to have the chemo which would in any event only give him an additional 12 - 15 months.

That is why my blood boils at the fluffing up of any sort of cancer.

I apologise for my outburst.

Zombie, I am so pleased to hear of your prognosis. I have everything crossed for you and hope the treatment isn't too terrible for you.

I'm really sorry to hear about your Godson. Just too awful. I remember with DH (who also had widespread bone metastases), just praying that he was going to be well enough to have chemo. Sadly, he never was.

It is a nasty bastard disease and that is indeed why there should be no fluffiness around it.

I wish you all the best and my thoughts are with your Godson and his family. Wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Rindercella, I could never express how much your post touches me.

I never posted on any of your threads but I did follow them and I prayed for your DH, you and your DCs. You have and still are an inspiration to me.

*have been...

rindercella I havent followed your story but am very sorry to hear about your husband.

Also very sorry about your godson zombie. Positive to hear about your diagnosis though.

It is a nasty and often unpredictable disease, it always fills me sadness when I hear about anyone being diagnosed.

I hope my earlier comment about herceptin didnt sound too flippant zombie, just trying to say, treatment wise, the worst should be over For you.

Couldnt agree more about the fluffiness.

I don't agree about the RIP pages. I had one friend who died very suddenly and far too young. Her ExH, who had recently left her for someone else, shut down her own FB page and there was a need for her friends to communicate our grief and communicate with each other. A few of us just post when we are thinking of her and it helps a lot.

i meant prognosis of course NOT diagnosis! Sorry zombie

claire, I didn't take your comment as flippant.

You're right - the worst is behind me. That doesn't stop me being a bit apprehensive about the unknown. I'm sure that once I have the first Herceptin session behind me and know how well I tolerate that I will relax and settle into the 3 weekly routine.

While I'm here I'd just like to say how superb my treatment has been. Absolutely every health care professional I have encountered on this journey has been supportive, empathetic and professional. It really has been the NHS at its very best.

The original bra colour one was funny as is was original and did make people think what the heck is going on.

However all the spin offs are tedious, mean nothing and I'm fed up of them now.

The original one was also tedious and meant nothing, you just hadn't caught onto that yet

I am guilty of reposting things to do with Autism awareness, as it's close to my heart, but the one that gets to me is a status about silent illnesses including Autism. It is not an illness!

Zombie, your brought tears to my eyes, but in a nice way. Thank you And thank you Claire (are you really in Modena? I once turned down a job working for Pavarotti in Modena!).

I think it's perfectly okay to share actual awareness campaigns on FB - so from the The National Autistic Society or Macmillan or anywhere really where the message is clear and it's something you strongly believe in. What I really dislike are those, "97% of my friends won't repost this on their walls because they have more sense are too scared...." bollocks. Or the "I like it in the hallway" nonsense.

The Coppa Feel FB page is great for awareness and information.

Yes Rindercella I am in Modena, it sounds like you have a very interesting job, I bet not many people have turned down Pavarotti!

zombie you are right everyone is different in terms of how they tolerate drugs, I had a rubbish time with everything except Herceptin, only side effect was drowsiness caused by the antihistamines they gave me with it. Hope it'll be similar for you too.

I agree about the silly status updates but I think RIP pages are ok.

My brother died very suddenly on 2nd June exactly thirteen months after my dad died. I find it very comforting to look at my brothers FB page and see how many people loved him and share memories of him.

I know my brothers 4 children find it comforting too.

Actually YABU!!

I did race for life last year and raised £800....all from fb and fb friends!!! I am doing the colourthon this year and will again be raising money through my fb!

RIP pages are ok. My mum died almost 2 years ago and although I didnt do a RIP page for her I did a few times put a status applicable to how I was feeling. Me and my sis shared memories through it, spoke about her through it....how is that lame and meaningless.

I do agree about the whole raising cancer by announging what colour bra etc etc - that has always seemed pointless to me and I dont partake in things like that though.

Didn't say RIP pages were lame and meaningless .

And also you didn't say that raising money through FB was meaningless either! Wishes people would properly read the OP sometimes.

Claire, it was about 20 years ago and it was to work at his stables! They were absolutely stunning. I am going back to Italy next month, the first time in about 15 years & I cannot wait