Talk to someone who's been there
Confidentiality
If you would like to speak to one of our trained volunteers, our Specialist Nurses will ask for a few details from you to pass onto the peer support service and volunteer, such as your name, age, telephone number and availability. We will also collect some brief medical information for the purposes of matching you with an appropriate volunteer. These details will be stored on our confidential database, managed separately from other data provided to the charity.
The details of your discussion(s) with our volunteers will remain confidential between you and the volunteer, except for basic information such as the date and length of the call fed back for monitoring purposes. Volunteers may in exceptional circumstances disclose information about a call to Prostate Cancer UK - for example, in line with our charity adult safeguarding policy if it is felt a service user is at significant risk.
Our general clinical services confidentiality policy also applies to the One-to-one support service
What is One-to-one support?
The important thing to remember when you’re affected by prostate cancer or prostate disease is that you’re not alone. There are lots of people out there who are on very similar journeys, and who have had the treatments and experiences you may be facing.
So, if you have prostate cancer, other prostate diseases, or if you’re the partner, family or friend of someone affected, we can help you talk to someone who’s been there.
Our One-to-one support service offers anyone affected by prostate cancer or prostate disease the opportunity to talk with a trained support volunteer over the telephone. Our volunteers will listen to your issues and concerns, and share their own personal experience to support you.
Who is it for?
One-to-one support is open to anyone affected by prostate cancer or prostate disease, whether you're a diagnosed man facing a difficult decision or family member or friend looking for support.
Support for men with prostate cancer or prostate disease
Our volunteers can offer support to men by sharing their experience of:
- Open surgery
- Keyhole surgery
- Robotic surgery
- Brachytherapy (permanent seed)
- Brachytherapy (high dose rate)
- Chemotherapy
- Radiotherapy
- Radiotherapy as a second or salvage treatment
- High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
- Hormone therapy
- Prostatitis
- Impact of prostate cancer on relationships and your sex life
- Treatment side effects
- Getting back to work
Support for partners, friends and family
We also have volunteers who are partners of men diagnosed with prostate cancer. They can offer support in areas such as:
- Supporting a man with advanced disease
- The impact of prostate cancer on your relationships and sex life
- Losing someone to prostate cancer
I greatly benefitted from speaking to the volunteers. It was helpful to hear their personal experience as it was directly related to my situation. I feel better informed about what to expect, because they have actually been through the treatments themselves and know what its like.
My husband initially shut me out; it was his way of coping. Talking to another wife was enormously helpful and a real support for me.
