My name's Helen Dutton, I'm one of the Macmillan lung cancer nurses at Wythenshawe hospital

and I've been a Macmillan nurse for seven years.

I've always looked after cancer patients and Macmillan nurses seemed to,

from the interactions that I had with them on the ward when I was a staff nurse,

seemed to be able to have a closer relationship and a longer relationship with the patients.

And that's what I wanted to see people from the beginning for however long they needed us really.

We are usually involved when patients come

before they're diagnosed when they come for their CT scan and there is a suspicion of cancer.

And we'll often meet them then and help them

because it's a very worrying time that they might have a cancer but we don't know for definite.

So we get involved then and we will support people through their investigations.

Be there when they're told their actual diagnosis and help them onto the next part of their treatment.

The emotional support is really around how people are feeling about the cancer and how it's affecting them and their family,

because we see families as well as the patient,

and it's about helping them cope with the situation and understand the situation

so that they can make an informed decision about treatment or what they want to do.

People do worry about seeing us and do think that we'll only be there for their end of life

and that if they see us that's it, they've only got a couple of days.

But we try to explain to them that if we can see them earlier then we can help them with the symptoms

before they become a problem or we can get them support earlier.

We're very accessible, they can phone us after treatment,

they can phone us anytime and we'll speak to them and talk to them.

and if it's not something that we can sort out we can find the person who can sort it out.

It can be very hard, dealing with somebody who's got terminal cancer

but if you can make somebody who's distressed and uncomfortable, comfortable and settled

and their families can spend some time with them,

then that's very rewarding.