Introduction
This community is a place for anyone affected by cancer in any way, be it directly, through a friend or family member, as a fundraiser or as one of our growing army of campaigners. To keep this community an inclusive and safe place for active and supportive discussion, we ask that all of our users follow these simple guidelines
Every time you use this community, you're agreeing to our Community guidelines, Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions, so you should make sure that you understand these documents fully.
How we moderate
Anything you publish to the community (for instance, a blog entry or forum post), appears almost straight away because we don’t screen it before it goes live unless it includes an email address, a banned word(s) or more than 2 links. In these cases the post will need to be approved by a moderator before it can be published.
If you find anything in this community offensive or inappropriate, please contact us immediately by emailing community@macmillan.org.uk and we will take appropriate action as soon as we reasonably can.
This is called reactive moderation, and it means that we rely on our members [l1] to alert us to any inappropriate content or behaviour.
Moderating content in this way means that we are able to keep our community running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that support is available whenever our members need it.
We reserve the right to take steps or implement measures that we think will benefit the whole community and its users. This may include suspending your account without notice, or for more severe cases, banning you from using the Online Community.
If you have any questions about anything included in these guidelines, or would like us to explain anything in further detail, please contact us and we’ll do our best to answer you.
Your account
To use the Macmillan online community you need to register and set up an account. Please don’t set up more than one account, as these will be treated with suspicion and will be removed. If you can’t remember your password you can request a new one.
Please do not transfer your account to anyone else as this can cause confusion within the Community. We therefore ask that you let us know before transferring any aspect of your profile to another user.
Please do not allow others to access the Community using your log in details without letting us know first.
All accounts should belong to individuals and not organisations. If you wish to use the Community on behalf of an organisation, please contact us for permission.
If we block your account, please do not set up another one without our permission. If you feel that your ban was undeserved then please do contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss it with you.
Your username and biography
Your username is how other members of the community will identify you. To avoid confusion please don’t use terms that reflect figures of authority or formal roles such as nurse, doctor, etc.
For your protection, we ask that you don’t include your full name, an email or website address, telephone or fax number in your username, or any other information which could be used to identify you in the ‘real world’. And please don’t use any language that others may find offensive otherwise these will be removed.
Protect your privacy
Please remember that all the information that you post here is in the public domain – it can be read by people not logged into the Community and potentially found through search engines. Your blog, and forum posts including any images you put in them are all public, only your profile and private messages are private.
Do not post your own personal information such as your real full name, home addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. Do not share your profile on any social networking site with other users, they can find out a great deal of personal information about you from it and this could constitute a security risk.
Do not ask other users to post their personal information such as home addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses, and do not pressure anybody into revealing information about themselves that they do not wish to.
It is absolutely forbidden to post other people’s personal information, we take this very seriously. There are many protected ways to communicate through the site. If you want to contact another member, please send them a Private Message through the site, never an email to or from a private email address.
We have a Privacy Policy explaining how we handle personal information.
Post in English
All contributions must be in English. This is because the admin team aren’t able to moderate posts in other languages. It’s also important to make sure that all members can understand each other’s posts and support each other.
Be supportive
This community offers a space for a wide range of people, many of whom have been affected by cancer. Whether in a cancer type group or on a fundraising forum[l3] , please focus on supportive and sensitive discussions and always be sympathetic to other members’ feelings. Please do not bully, harass or intimidate any user. If you have misgivings about any member’s credentials, please report them to the admin team and then ignore them. Please avoid ‘whisper campaigns’ and witch hunts. The admin team are the only members of the Community who are able to decide whether a member is fake or not, please trust us to make the correct judgment call.
Respect others
We ask you to be tolerant and respectful of other members’ beliefs and opinions at all times. We understand that people often have strong feelings about the topics addressed in this community, but personal attacks are never justified. We may remove any comments others find offensive or threatening or which are deemed to be escalating a situation. We may also remove an entire thread if a strong disagreement develops.
It’s your right to disagree with an opinion, but don’t attack the person or people who hold it and please make your point respectfully.
Swearing and abusive language
Offensive or abusive language is unacceptable in this community. Due to the nature of the site, it’s fine to use anatomical terms in the correct context in your messages but you should avoid using swear words or words that others may find offensive aggressively or excessively.
We don't tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism or other forms of hate-speech or content that could be interpreted as such. Harassment and threats of physical violence will be treated very severely.
Press & media enquiries
Macmillan’s community is a peer to peer support network for people affected by cancer and is not a suitable place for direct press enquiries. This is so our members feel comfortable giving and getting support, and to protect their privacy and personal details.
If you would like to make contact with any of our members for the purpose of contributing to a media project, please contact us on media@macmillan.org.uk.
No adverts, promotions or spam
The Macmillan online community is a source of support and should not be used to sell or promote services to our members. We consider any commercial solicitation to be spam, including promoting web addresses, products or services. We will not tolerate any company or individual found to be soliciting personal information from our members for commercial gain. Action will be taken against any company found to be passing themselves off as an individual.
Requests from legitimate organisations can be posted on our Noticeboard forum with prior consent of the admin team.
Sending gifts or money
We recommend members do not share any personal details; this includes sending or receiving gifts or money. If you are concerned about the wellbeing of a member, please contact the admin team with your concerns. Letting us know will help us signpost people to relevant services. For more information about support services provided by Macmillan, please visit our website. If you are concerned about financial matters, find out more about how we can help on Macmillan’s financial support pages.
Personal fundraising
Whilst we appreciate that there are considerable financial demands associated with living with cancer, we are unable to permit personal fundraising appeals on the site. Charitable fundraising appeals will be assessed on a case by case basis and the moderation team will use their discretion. If you need financial assistance please contact our Macmillan Support Line on freephone 0808 808 0000 where someone will be able to advise you on available benefits and grants.
Report it, then ignore it
If someone posts something you feel violates our Community guidelines or Terms and Conditions[l4] , please let us know immediately, and then ignore it. Email us at community@macmillan.co.uk. Do not confront members publicly, please just report and ignore.
As in real life, not everyone on the internet is as nice as you may want them to be. Some nasty individuals enjoy riling people up online by posting inflammatory comments designed to provoke a response (often known as trolling or flaming). The best way to deal with this sort of behaviour is to report it, then ignore it. The same goes if you suspect another member of not being who they say they are; report and ignore. Although it is often difficult, ignoring users who do this is the only way to get rid of them; if they can’t provoke a response, they will leave you alone.
Keep it legal
Posting content that may put you or us at risk of prosecution, such as defamatory posts or content that breach someone else’s intellectual property rights is against our house rules. Please do not 'name and shame' individuals or organisations as this can leave both you and Macmillan open to prosecution if your comments could be interpreted as libellous. Please do not use our Community for anything unlawful, misleading or malicious.
Impersonation and imitation
Imitating other users can be a form of harassment and we take this very seriously. We may remove any content, delete accounts and ban users who do this. Members who are suspected of impersonating another member will have their accounts suspended pending investigation. Please do not provide false information in your biography or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
Not telling the truth
Macmillan aims to support everyone affected by cancer. From time to time we are visited by people who want to upset our members or who are not telling the truth about their cancer experience. Fortunately these cases are rare but sadly they do exist and can have a negative impact upon our community.
If you suspect someone isn’t telling the truth, the best thing to do is to ignore them. Someone who is here for the wrong reasons wants the attention: you ignoring them will put them off. Please don’t accuse anyone publicly of being dishonest as this can deflect discussion away from what our community is here for. Instead, report your suspicions to our admin team either by using the reporting function in our groups or emailing us directly.
Please remember we can only make decisions based on activity that takes place on our community and not on other social networks (such as Facebook) or phone conversations. We are always cautious when handling cases like this as we are here to support people affected by cancer and do not want to falsely accuse anyone. In some situations, if someone needs help that Macmillan cannot provide, we recommend organisations that can.
Suicide and self-harm
All mentions of intention to commit suicide, assisted suicide or self-harm will be removed from the site. Expressions of thoughts and feelings about these issues are allowed. If you are worried about another member of the Community, please contact a member of the admin team immediately. It is not your responsibility to offer counselling, please refer the member to our support line 0808 808 0000 or The Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90. We take these messages very seriously and will offer members guidance to appropriate support and advice.
Jokes
The Macmillan online community deals with really serious issues. But it can also be about putting a smile on your face when you need it most.
We think there is a place for jokes in our community, but we don’t want them to dominate our homepage, since this can be upsetting for people who are not in a laughing mood. So we ask that, when posting your funnies, you post them to our jokes group.
Jokes posted in the wrong place may be removed. We understand that everyone has a different idea of what is funny, but please keep your jokes clean. We also ask that you do not post links to external web sites or any images which others may find offensive.
Alternative and complementary therapies
Macmillan Cancer Support is dedicated to providing high quality, expertly developed information about cancer. We have a duty to try to avoid members on this site posting information that may prove harmful to those who trust it.
Alternative therapies
An alternative therapy tries to treat cancer by unconventional methods instead of the usual medical treatment.
When discussing alternative therapies, please do not:
Advocate the use of any alternative therapy
Claim that any alternative therapy can cure cancer, reduce the size of tumours or in any way treat cancer
Advise anyone to ignore medical experts’ advice on the use of any treatment whatsoever
Promote any alternative therapy.
When discussing alternative therapies, you may:
Provide anecdotal accounts about alternative therapy use, as long as you do not make claims about their effects
Complementary therapies
A complementary therapy is one that is used alongside conventional treatments to improve quality of life.
Complementary therapies do not influence the cancer itself but some can help to alleviate symptoms and the side effects of conventional treatments.
When discussing complementary therapies, please do not:
Advocate the use of any complementary therapy as an alternative to conventional treatment
Claim that any complementary therapy can cure cancer, reduce the size of tumours or in any way treat cancer
Advise anyone to ignore medical experts’ advice on the use of any treatment whatsoever
Advertise any complementary therapy for commercial gain (commercial solicitation of any kind goes against our Community guidelines)
When discussing complementary therapies, you may:
Advocate the use of complementary therapies in conjunction with conventional treatment
Make substantiated claims about the effectiveness of complementary therapies in improving quality of life
Child protection
For the protection and safety of children, this community does not support members under 16 years of age. Accounts of members found to be under 16 will be closed without notice. If you require support and you are under 16, you may wish to visit the Teenage Cancer Trust. You may also find our information pages for teens helpful.
Please remember
Views expressed in this community are purely the views of the members and as such don't constitute professional recommendations or advice or the opinions of Macmillan Cancer Support.
We have the right to update and change our Community guidelines and Terms and Conditions at any time. If you have any questions about these rules, or anything on the site at all, contact us and we’ll do all we can to help.