Support

Receiving a prostate cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming and make you feel all sorts of emotions. It can also affect your family in lots of different ways. Just because you might feel confused, sad or angry does not mean you are not coping with the disease. These feelings are very normal. 

At Orchid, we are here to offer support. Our trained and experienced nurses are available to give you advice on our helpline – you can find our contact details here. They can help in a wide variety of ways. Other men have found our publications and videos useful.

• When you get your diagnosis, let your family know of any planned treatment and how it might affect them. It might be hard to talk about your disease but you could be surprised by how supportive your family are and how relieved you feel to tell them.  
• Your family can help you with research, reading information on our website and other sites run by cancer charities, the NHS and other respected medical organisations. 
• Get a family member or close friend to come with you to your appointments to listen to the medical team as they explain your treatment. It can be hard to take everything in and it is good to have support.  
• Talking to children can be difficult. Visit our Talking to Children page for advice. 
• If you need support from outside the family, contact the Orchid support line or Macmillan Cancer Support. 
• Try to think about all the ways that prostate cancer could affect your life and any caring responsibilities for children, elderly parents or other members of your family. Talk to your children’s school and the care teams that help you with other relatives you look after.
• You may have financial worries due to having time off work. Useful information from Macmillan Cancer can be found here. Benefits information from the Department of Work and Pensions Benefits can be found here. 
• Some alternative treatments may help you cope with side effects or the stress of treatment. For more information on NHS services, please click here. 

You may find that you get all the support you need from your family. However, it can be difficult to talk freely about your concerns when you do not want to cause worry. Counselling is a great way to talk about difficult issues with a trained professional.  

Your specialist team or GP should be able to direct you to counselling. For more information on counselling from NHS Choices please click here. 

One of the best ways to handle your prostate cancer journey is to attend a local support group. Tackle is an organisation that runs a nationwide network of support groups and you can visit their website here.