The Macmillan cancer adverts

[LionsTeeth]

They just give me the rage “a Mum with cancer is still a Mum”. Well, obviously!
Perhaps I’m completely missing the point of them but my god do they make me angry.
It can’t just be me who finds them in poor taste?

Agree Alexa. My late DH was in hospital for 3 months before he died from bladder cancer at 57. Not a sniff of Macmillan during that time or after.

Macmillan do fund lots of very worthwhile posts like macmillan benefits advisers and cancer information centres as well as macmillan Nurses but provision is patchy. We are lucky in my local Oncology centre that there is a macmillan Cancer information centre with benefits advice clinics every week day and advisers that will go up to wards to see patients or do home visits when needed. I get the impression that the Macmillan Nurse specialists have too much workload. Macmillan also fund training for health care specialists. They do a lot of worthwhile work but the adverts don't do them any favours because they seem to promise a service which often isn't delivered or is patchy.

I used to give money to MacMillan until my DH had cancer. He was at one hospital where he talked to a very reassuring Macmillan nurse who told him she'd be on the end of a line any time he needed her, then went on holiday for 3 weeks. Then he was referred to another hospital where exactly the same thing happened!

So, really, when we needed them they really weren't there at all. Two conversations, no backup, no advice. Fundraising is now directed in other areas!

I hate them too.

An old friend of mine had cancer many years ago and when he posted that he had been clear of cancer for 10 years so many people posted that he was so strong, such a fighter, how cancer could never beat someone like him. He kicked cancer's arse. It came for him and he won.

My kids just lost their dad to cancer and I remember reading that post wincing. It fucking hurt. That language still hurts my children and they detest the adverts too.

I've been rather meh about MacMillan since they contacted a dear old friend about his cancer diagnosis before he'd actually receivd it.

I hate hear adverts too. My mum was let down time and time again but Macmillan but the hospice care she had from Martlets was amazing. We sent them money but not Macmillan and never would.
I hate the adverts and I hate this obsession with lets fight and run and bake and bollocks for cancer. I wince every time someone asks me if I want to run/bake/do something to raise money for one of these charities “for my mum” seriously fuck off. I don’t want to.

These adverts really boil my piss.

I lost my dad 12 weeks ago, who did everything he could, even though the chemo poisoned him and he 'died twice' before the stage 4 bowel cancer killed him. He didn't want to go, at retirement age but very happily working until the cancer and his treatment robbed him of a normal

Life

That's great news about your mum youare. My dear old friend is in remission, too. He's in his 90s and back to swimming every day!

I'm actually more cross with a person I know who just does the odd thing for recognition on social media but didn't give a flying frigg about our family when it counted. And has ignored us since.
Well feck them and the horse they rode in on.

The whole "We're coming to get you cancer/kick cancer's butt" thing... I'd always interpreted that to mean cancer as a whole illness, not individual cases. As in 'we are going to fight cancer until we find a cure and it no longer exists'. I wish.

Glad it's not just me, I hate these ads, and switch off immediately when they come on. Same with the 'little fudodo is hungry today' ads for the 'Africa begging.' #sorrynotsorry

I am sick to fucking death of seeing weepy little children used to beg and scavenge money off people; money that will go 99% to the greedy fat fuckers at the top of the food chain in the charity.

There are 150,000 registered charities in this country, and the vast majority of them give very little to the people or animals they are representing.

I even hate the fucking charity shops now, as they get massively reduced rent and rates, free stock, and volunteer workers, and they charge laughable prices for some of the stock. They used to be fab for cheap shit, but now half the stuff is more costly than buying new, and some stuff is actually new. I have seen a dozen (normal, regular) shops close in the town 4 miles from me, and 7 or 8 charity shops pop up in their place that seem to be doing very well.

These charities all take the piss, someone is making fuckloads from it, and it sickens me how they play on people emotions. I am also royally fucked off with fucking chuggers. I ignore them, and move away. Don't care how 'rude' it is. I even had some twat coming to my fucking HOUSE the other day, trying to get me to give my personal details and bank details etc to their charity!

I said 'no' and shut the door. Some of my neighbours are over 65 and alone though, and they are more vulnerable. I remember a tale on a tv programme last year about an old lady of 75, who had 13 direct debits going out for various charities, and it took her entire income. She was begging friends and family and neighbours for food, and when a kind neighbour investigated what was going on, she saw her entire income was going to these 13 charities. Shame on them. Cunts.

I mean, how much more money do cancer charities need? I don't know any other illness or condition that gets as much money and publicity and support. Are they ever going to find a cure? Have they already GOT one, but know if they reveal it that the funding will stop?

In addition, how much more money can we possibly pour into Africa?

We must have given them 100s of millions now, (since Live Aid - and including Live Aid,) and NOTHING has changed. Nothing.

Is it any wonder, given all of the above, that people now have compassion fatigue?

I hate them too. I hate anything that implies that terminal illnesses can be beaten through strength and determination, when the strongest, most loved people I know have passed away.

The recent documentary about Raine Spencer really angered me when they said that she willed her husband through his illness and kept him alive with her love and spirit. Absolute rubbish. So when he died a few years' later, she was no longer bothered about him? I think it's disgraceful and irresponsible to promote that sort of message.

Oh I'm so glad I'm not on my own with this.

What angers me the most is the terms battling, fighting etc
If someone has MS we don't say they are so strong and will be able to fight it do we! No we say they've MS and are being treated etc
Cancer is the only illness I can think of that strongly implies that only the strong warrier types fight it & survive. .. so the ones who don t survive then .... are they weak, didn't fight enough etc. It disgusts me

Out of interest, what sort of advertisement would people not find jarring or patronising?

I think it's a hard measure to get right iyswim.

No it's not.
I don't find adverts for baked beans patronising. Or adverts for Nike trainers.
It's the way a lot of the cancer adverts are pitched ... cancer we're coming for u, kick cancers butt etc
I've never heard the phrase.... AIDS we're coming to get you or lets kick MS's butt!

I’m convinced that Macmillan are just a money generating, make work organisation. They don’t employ nurses long term, they don’t run any hospices either. They must raise shedloads of money so where does it all go and what’s it being spent on? It’s not as though they need to train nurses from scratch as they’re already registered and sorted before they become a Macmillan nurse.

Although I appreciate the efforts that Macmillan makes to help cancer patients I have found their marketing / advertising to be aggressively uninterested in what cancer patients think or feel. I received online abuse from a poster about my comments on 'brave the shave', which I hate with a passion, yet it was me who Macmillan 'told off' and threatened to delete my posts.

There was a poll just this week from another charity on which photo was best for fundraising, including one of 4 lovely looking ladies dressed up to the nines and looking gorgeous for a night out. My hair is mostly gone, my toenails are black and falling out, I have no stamina or fitness so I shuffle around in flip flops. WTF has this photo got to do with fundraising? I simply don't understand why this is supposed to encourage people to donate. It bears no resemblance to reality whatsoever.

I would like pop-in coffee mornings, where people could just go for a chat. Cancer is a lonely business. My nearest 'group' of this kind is 20 miles and 45 minutes away in a hospital. A close-up of a listening ear would be much more appropriate than glamorous women.

@expatinscotland

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but as you’ve clearly looked in to which (cancer) charitypies to support, I was wondering what you thought of Bloodwise

My friend is a Macmillan nurse and has been for over 15 years. She does amazing work.

I’m so relieved I’m not the only one to not like those ads!

We were incredibly lucky that we have a fantastic Hospice 5 mins away that had a place for my mother for the last 5 weeks of her life (pancreatic cancer).

I support local charities that don’t have fancy, expensive offices in central London. I understand the need for fundraising campaigns but some of the CEO salaries for the big charities are ridiculous.

GreatStar It really is. I used to work in this industry - granted not for charities, but when there are multi-million pound contracts and reputations at stake it's not easy.

Absolutely GreatStar, why is cancer portrayed so differently to other life-limiting illnesses? Stroke, heart disease, Alzheimer's and dementia remain the biggest killers but hardly receive the same amount of exposure.

When my dh was diagnosed with cancer we had one visit from a McMillan Nurse who told us she thought Chemotherapy was a bad thing and it had not helped her father who had just died from cancer. She then told me afterwards that even if my husband responded well she would only give him a few years at the most. Nearly 18 years later and he is still here, well and living life to the full. I rang up and complained about her and was told she would be reprimanded - I was just thankful she had not said it in front of him. Just after, my df was diagnosed with cancer and I would not let McMillan Nurses anywhere near him. Two years ago my dm was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I was told bluntly to take her home to die. There was no McMillan Nurse available in my area and there was no place for her at the local hospice and I had to care for her myself with the so-called assistance from the local District Nurses - who, amongst other things did not bother to check her "End of Life" drugs and when she was dying in my home, on a Sunday, we discovered there was no morphine in the end of life drugs package something which should have been spotted immediately by the District Nurses and my poor dm died in my arms in agony - something that haunts me every day. During their visits the District Nurses had been more concerned with drinking my coffee and arguing with my mum's carers (who were wonderful). There was an investigation about the behaviour of the district nurses afterwards, the result of which was that the first thing District Nurses in our area now do when attending a terminally ill patient, is check the contents of the "End of Life" drugs package to make sure everything is present and correct. We were lucky to have a Marie Curie Nurse stay overnight a couple of times, who was fantastic, but unfortunately, the District Nurses forgot to book her again and I was told they were fully booked up. Sorry for the rant, I have lost most of my family to cancer over the past few years and now my Aunty has just been diagnosed. Only people who have been through it understand x

greendale she won’t actually be employed by Macmillan though. They only employ the nurses they train for a certain period of time then they’re employed by the NHS or whoever.

I agree with other posters that there are other conditions which need attention and help for people in the palliative stages.

The Macmillan nurse used to come into the care home, tell us what to do (we were already doing it) and what we should be planning to do (we were already planning it) then bugger off until the next visit. We were already palliative care nurses who’d received extra training/education and who’d been doing palliative care for many many years. It’s not rocket science.

Marie Curie employ their own nurses and run hospice facilities. My first husband died in one. They’re the ones who deserve the money imo. They do a fantastic job.