The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust (EMCT) takes young people aged eight to 24 years old on free sailing and outdoor adventures to help rebuild their confidence after cancer. Scott Wilson, of the Trust’s communications team, and Rebecca and Simran, two of the young people it’s supported, describe how the trips help bring people with similar experiences together and why that’s important.
When young people are diagnosed with cancer, they might talk to their friends and families about how they’re feeling. But, unless they know someone who’s also gone through a serious illness, the conversations don’t always go as planned. Instead of being able to honestly share what’s on their mind, without judgement, they’re often met with sympathy or pity. A lot of the time, people just really don’t know what to say.
Which is why the friendships young people make on the EMCT’s transformational sailing adventures are so different from those back home. At the end of a five-day sailing trip this summer, Simran, who is 16 and was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was six, said there’d been none of the usual awkwardness that comes with talking about cancer.
Often when you talk about it, people are like ‘aww, you had cancer’. With the Trust, no one really feels sorry for each other. Everyone understands you, and everyone knows what you’ve been through. Unlike your friends back home, who you can talk to, but they’ll never actually understand.
Simran
She reconnected with Rebecca when they sailed together this summer, having previously met on an EMCT adventure the previous year, and they soon picked up where they left off.
Rebecca, who’s 17 and was diagnosed with lymphoma when she was 11, said her friendship with Simran allows her to ‘feel how I want to feel’.
When you’re on a boat, you’re together for four or five days, 24/7. There’s not much we don’t find out about each other, and it’s so nice to have someone who’s not going to judge you for a week. We’ve become really close friends again.
Rebecca
Without the post-treatment support offered by the EMCT, they agreed their illnesses would have left them feeling much lonelier. Neither of them met people their age in hospital, and both emphasise how important that is having been through something that affects young people in unique ways.
After treatment ends, young people may be left with fewer friends and struggle with relationships. Their education may suffer, they may miss out on work experience, and they may develop body image issues, too. Adjusting to this ‘new normal’, while also feeling isolated from everyone around them, can be extremely difficult. That’s why, when treatment ends, the Trust’s work begins. Together, young people stop feeling like ‘the only one’. Rebecca said the benefits come naturally.
I don’t really know how to explain it. It just feels like a weight has been lifted every time you go on one of the charity’s trips. That weight can build across the year, so it’s nice to have a safe space to talk about it. We never sat down and said, ‘this is what happened’, but if it comes up in conversation, I can say, ‘I felt the same way’.
Rebecca
At the end of their trip, Rebecca and Simran both felt more able to make new friends. Because they met at the EMCT, they know they’ll always have each other to talk to, even if others don’t always ‘get it’. They’re both ‘in the same boat’.
From Contact magazine issue 104 | Autumn 2024
