Hi,
Im about to start chemo and wanted to know from any black women who can give me any advice or information that would be helpful for me especially with regards to skin care, hair care, hair loss. Is there anything i should be aware of?
Thanks!!!
Hello Fortunate
Welcome to the forums, youāve come to the right place for support as the users of this site have a wealth of experience and knowledge between them.
Whilst waiting for replies you may find it useful to contact our free helpline on 0808 800 6000, opening hours are Monday to Friday 9.00 ā 5.00 and Saturday 9.00 ā 2.00.
Best wishes
June, moderator
hi,
I am neither black, young or starting chemo so I cannot give you advice. But I just wanted to welcome you to the forum. Some of the issues of having cancer and coping with treatment are common to all and you will find the threads informative and sometimes amusing.
There will be people on here with advice more relevant to you, but in the meantime I agree, I bet the help line will have answers for specific question on different hair and skin types.
They close after lunch time saturday. (lets raise money for 24/7 help lines) But if no-one has answered your question by monday give them a ring.
Hi Fortunate,
I am answering partly to bump your post up the list so that it can be seen by more people, partly to say welcome! and partly to say, have you heard of LGFB?
lookgoodfeelbetter.co.uk/site/index.cfm
These sessions are invaluable in making people feel good about themselves again. I went near the beginning of my chemo and really benefitted when my eyebrows disappeared! It was also the first place I met other women without hair in a situation where we could discuss it.
Also to perhaps ask a beauty magazine advising black women if they have any input into the LGFB movement? It is really important that there is such input as my group of cancer, Triple Negative, is supposed to be particularly prevalent in Afro-American women. I know, I know, just when you are doing chemo is not a great time to get into campaigning mode.
Iāll look out to see if you re getting replies and will bump you up he board again if needed. There is a very beautiful and warm hearted young poster here who might be able to help, if she isnāt too busy being post op and caring for her family.
Wishing you all the best through chemo, it does come to an end, and gradually the hair and skin issues improve, still working on it all here 7 months on!
Lavender
xx
And bump again!
Hi there Lavender lassie & Old & Grumpy!
I must say thank you for your generousity of ābumpingā me up as im new to forums and not sure whats completely what as yet and also for your suggestions of phoning the help line, which i will too. I will look at LGFB.
I felt quite warm receiving your welcomes and support, I can see why these forums work for people to support one another.
I was wondering if theres anyone around from Hackney, London who who could suggest anything groups or services that i could get involved with.
Im glad to be on board!
Fortunate.
Hi back, Fortunate,
Itās not a club any of us want to join, but when you find you are eligible, it is a good place to be. I cannot imagine what this last year would have been like without the hints and tips and rants and general encouragement on this board.
Anyone from Hackney out there for Fortunate?
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Im sure your find a lot of info and help here.Most of the tips dont matter ref if your black or white.Breast cancer and its effects are no different with race.Wish you luck jane
if you start a thread titled āany one in hackneyā you might get some people answering
Actually, research suggests there are clear racial differences when it comes to breast cancer. These differences concern womens age when cancer is ādevelopedā, survival and how agressive the cancer is. For example, the following is taken from an article titled, āBlack women ādevelop breast cancer earlyāā, published in The Times on January 17, 2008.
Black women are likely to develop breast cancer two decades earlier than their white contemporaries. Researchers found that black patients had breast cancer diagnosed on average at 46 while white patients had a diagnosis at an average age of 67.
The study, published online in the British Journal of Cancer, involved 102 black British women and 191 white women who had breast cancer diagnosed at Homerton University Hospital in Hackney, East London, between 1994 and 2005.
Researchers, based at the Institute of Cancer, Cancer Research UKās clinical centre at Barts and the London School of Medicine, also found that survival was poorer among black women with smaller tumours.
In addition, their early findings suggest that tumours in the younger black patients were more likely to be aggressive, and a higher proportion of tumours were basal-like ā meaning that they were less likely to respond to newer types of targeted breast cancer treatments such as Herceptin. If these results are confirmed in larger studies, the findings could have implications for diagnosis, screening and treatment of black patients in the future, they said. While it is known that breast cancer affects more white women than black, cancer registries have only recently started to collect ethnicity data. There is little understanding of if, and indeed how, ethnic heredity affects the development of the disease.
The study compared women of broadly similar socioeconomic backgrounds in an effort to make sure that other external factors did not unduly influence the results.
Rebecca Bowen, the studyās author, said that 25 per cent of all breast cancer cases diagnosed in the study were in women aged 45, or younger. This figure rose to 45 per cent among the black population in Hackney.
āWe think the differences in the way tumours of black and white women behave can be put down to the biological differences between the two ethnic groups,ā she added.
āWeāre now trying to find out why the tumours are so different so that we can develop new treatments to target the aggressive forms of breast cancer seen in young black women.ā
The results emerged as two of the UKās leading cancer charities announced the first UK-based clinical trial to improve treatments into the particularly aggressive form of breast cancer typically found in younger women and those of African ethnicity.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Cancer Research UK have launched the first UK-based clinical trial to improve treatments for basal-like tumours, also known as oestrogen and HER2-negative tumours, and triple negative tumours. The trial will compare the womenās responses to the drug carboplatin, which is not normally used to treat breast cancer, with docetaxel, the current treatment for HER2-negative tumours.
Indigo Pearl But what i mean is black or white.On here we all here to help each other.Cancer is cancer slow or fast growing big r small.End of the day we all have tips to share and stories to share.Jane
I agree that everyone on this forum has experiences to share, tips etc. However, in doing so, we should not overlook the differences in experience of breast cancer due to race/ethnicity, sexuality etc.
There are a number of resources in London including: the Macmillan Cancer Centre (Hammersmith), Breast Cancer Haven (Fulham), Paulās Cancer Support Centre (Clapham Junction) and Cancerkin (Royal Free Hospital and east London, including Hackney). All of these 4 agencies have websites detailing the services they provide.
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Hi Fortunate,
Iāve been a member and regular visitor to this forum since i was diagnosed last october but this if the first time Iām actually posting. As I young black women I spent hours online trying to find someone āin a similar stituationā so feel free fire anything at me. I didnāt have any real skincare issues. I used the cold cap so didnāt lose all my hairā¦my hairline suffered and I lost about half the volume. The cold cap isnāt easy at -5 Ā°C but I would advise anyone to at least give it a try.
J x
Hi oldandlumpy,
Your question about a 24 hour Helpline has been passed to the clinical team. At the moment, we are only able to open our Helpline Mon-Fri, 9-5, and Saturday 9-2, but will always investigate ways to improve this service.
Thank you for your thoughts on this subject.
Kind regards,
Jo, Facilitator
I would think people are at their lowest and needing reassurance most out of office hours. I would think that those people who work would find it difficult to phone during the day. However it is good to have a help line at all even if it is not 24/7
norberte Breast cancer is what we all have.You seem to be wanting to put everyone in there own groups.In my eyes there is no difference we are all the same in one helpfull boat of breast cancer.Here to help each other not to group people.Jane
Perhaps the reason you donāt think there needs to be some side groups is because you are, like me, in the majority and so donāt experience - or even see - the small but significant differences in what happens when you get a cancer diagnosis. Like the cultural differences in how cancer is dealt with among the Asian community and how Asian women who lose their hair face a whole raft of attitudes from the community they live in that you and I would never be faced with.
You do find on the forums that people already group themselves - I donāt go into the lymphoedema or mastectomy sections because my experiences arenāt relevant, for example. Similarly I am not in a position to discuss black skin and hair care, or prejudices in the clinical environment, because these are not difficulties Iāve needed to face. But there ARE, as you say, the general threads that are helpful to everyone where the problems ARE the same whoever you happen to be, and people who post in the sub-groups also post on those forums.
Iām very sympathetic to those who have BC-related needs that I have no personal experience of, and I have no problem with there being a section of the forum for black women, younger women, lesbians, men with BC, people with secondaries, etc etc as these groups have specific needs that the broader BC forums donāt quite meet.
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It might be helpful to re-read Fortunateās first post, all the poor lady did was ask if anyone similar to her had any skin care or hair tips as she was going to have chemo.
Separate areas may help people to quickly identify others similar to you but what is wrong with just asking the question? There is much talk of raising awareness about breast cancer and where better to start than on here. For example I donāt know if the hair products I am using to try to re-grow my hair would be suitable for Fortunate but would be interested to know, I have black friends/colleagues who may find themselves where we are and I would like to be able to give them my support if they do.
DaisyGirl xx