i can issue 5

Editor's letter:
Getting the message

Each year the UK Breast Cancer Coalition holds a 'Westminster Fly-In' when members get to meet their Member of Parliament in order to raise issues that are important to people with breast cancer. Sitting listening to members feed back their experiences at the Fly-In last October, I overheard two women in front of me. They were asking each other what 'empowerment' meant – they kept hearing the word but didn't understand it.

It made me think that we become so used to jargon that we don't know we're using it. So, for those of you who were wondering, empowerment is really about giving people the tools and know-how to take control of their lives and the things that are happening to them. It may be 'empowering' people to ask their doctor about different treatment choices; to ask for access to a counsellor or for a different kind of drug to relieve pain. And it is at the heart of i can, which is intended to give people affected by cancer the knowledge and confidence to cope with the disease in the way that suits them – not just to be on the conveyor belt the NHS sometimes seems to be.

That's why your feedback is so important – we need to make sure that i can is working for you. It is also why we include articles on symptom control in every issue – to give you a better knowledge of how to cope with the realities of cancer. We return, on page 12, to fatigue, which generated a huge amount of interest when we covered it in the first issue. This time we are looking at a possible physical cause of fatigue – anaemia – and how it is dealt with.
The experience did also remind me that doctors use jargon without thinking and I would encourage you all to ask for an explanation whenever you don't understand something the doctor says to you. And if we ever use jargon in i can, let us know about it!

Jean Mossman, Editor