Ellie Waters, 20, is a digital content creator who was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, aged 14. She tells us how she began creating digital content to share her experiences and help raise awareness of childhood cancer and its effects.
I began creating content after my mum noticed that I was becoming gradually more anxious and distressed, with the weight of my cancer diagnosis beginning to bring me down.
I felt as if I had all these pent-up emotions that were desperate to be freed. So, she suggested I start a blog. I was a bit dubious at first, having always been reserved when it came to showing my emotions, but I knew that nothing would get better if I didn’t try something. Plus, it would give me something to occupy my mind during the lonely days stuck in my hospital bed.
My first few blog posts were very therapeutic as I could push all my thoughts, feelings and emotions on to a virtual piece of paper. But, once I had vented all that I could, I realised I needed something else to write. That’s when I had a lightbulb moment. I could spend the rest of my treatment feeling sorry for myself and venting online, or rather, use that energy to help others going through the same experiences as me. So, I chose the latter.
I decided I was going to start writing cancer advice blogs.
The first one I wrote was titled ‘How to cope with losing your hair’, which received a lot of positive comments. From then on, I became passionate about helping others in the same situation as me, so I continued writing blog posts about many different aspects of cancer. I kept writing the blog for a few months, but it began to feel too impersonal. Plus, as I was becoming more and more exhausted from radiotherapy, I was finding it difficult to concentrate on writing. So, taking inspiration from Talia Joy, a cancer YouTuber, I decided that I was going to start my own YouTube channel to create cancer advice videos.
My first video, called ‘My Cancer Story’, had 396,000 views, and my videos soon started becoming popular in the childhood cancer community. This led to great opportunities, such as appearing on ITV News and collaborating with charities, like Sarcoma UK. It felt amazing that I could reach so many people using my YouTube channel. At a time when I felt powerless to cancer, having the power to be a voice for other cancer kids made me feel like the most powerful person in the world. It was like I had a superpower!
But the best part of it all, and what kept me motivated to keep producing videos, was the messages I’d receive from fellow cancer patients. Hearing them say that my videos had helped them, it made me feel like I had a purpose at a time when my life had stopped.
YouTube also fuelled my passion for childhood cancer advocacy. Seeing how my platform could reach so many people, I knew I had to use it to spread the word about childhood cancer. My favourite video shows me approaching random members of the public, asking them if they knew that childhood cancer receives so little funding. It took a lot of guts to randomly approach members of the public - I must have asked over 50 people, but only five would agree to be in my video. But ultimately, I achieved my goal of spreading awareness of childhood cancers, so I was happy.
Nowadays, I’ve slowed down the digital content a lot, as life has taken over. I’m now nearly five years post-treatment and currently studying medicine at Keele University. However, I still keep my Instagram account, with 14,700 followers, active. I feel like on social media you can hear the bad stories of cancer and success stories can be sometimes hard to find. So, I make sure I keep my Instagram updated, to give others who are undergoing, or have finished, treatment hope that there’s life after cancer.
Recently, as well as continuing to advocate for childhood cancers, I’ve been directing my focus on informing people about the late effects of cancer treatment. Most notably, the menopause. I was diagnosed at 15 with menopausal symptoms and finding information online was very difficult, which made me feel isolated and hopeless. So, I’m very passionate about informing other young women about early menopause and advising them on how to best look after themselves, and how to get the help they deserve. From this, I’ve co-written a digital booklet with Dr Louise Newson, called ‘A young woman’s guide to menopause after treatment for cancer’. This is one of my proudest achievements and has helped a lot of other young women.
Being able to use digital platforms to share my story and amplify my voice, helped me mentally during and after cancer treatment. It helped me reach out to others going through the same thing, and it gave me a sense of purpose at a time when my life felt futile.
Follow Ellie on Instagram
@teamellie_blog
From Contact magazine issue 93 - December 2021
