Had it been that I had this disease 20 years ago there was no internet,

there was no social internet.

I suppose the only way that you would meet fellow sufferers was in

the waiting room of the radiotherapy or the chemotherapy suites.

Possibly some people sort of made friendships there but you're going through

your own little private bit of, sort of, anxiety and you don't really feel like,

sort of, madly socializing when you're waiting for treatment.

But once you are in the comfort of your own home and you can rattle away on the computer,

it's almost like having instant agony aunts.

I was playing about on the Mac site sort of looking for various bits of information

and then somehow I, sort of, stumbled into Mac Land.

And, in fact, a lot of us call it that, it's 'friends in Mac Land.'

And I thought, oooh, this is interesting.

It's real people out there and I can ask them questions.

And um...and I can help others. It's very much a two-way street, it's, you know,

you don't go on there,

sort of bemoaning your fate, you go on to help others and they help you.

The guidelines for the Mac site do say,

introduce yourself on the forum page and say, 'Hello, I'm new,'

and just say a little bit about yourself.

I was welcomed in myself. I know how important it is because you do feel a bit, sort of,

nervous and possibly foolish writing in...into

a vacuum, you know, you don't know what kind of response you're going to get.

But the regular people will always make a point of welcoming new people

and that, sort of, takes the edge off. You might be a little bit nervous to start

but I mean you don't have to tell them your inside leg measurement, you know, you can just

tell them what you want to, you know, without baring your soul completely.

You know, some people like to stay anonymous and not take it any further.

I have chosen to take it further and have made real friends out of the people on the site.

We go out for lunch - there's a whole group of us who go out for lunch on a Saturday.

And people probably think, 'Strange women,'

'What, are they, are they from an office or something?' But, no, we are all fellow breast cancer sufferers.

And the surprise to outsiders may be how much laughter there is.

We all get together and it's just uproarious laughter

Now whether that's some kind of black humour, I don't know. But it's, it's really great.