Heidi on her experience of lung cancer and Macmillan’s Deaf Cancer Support Project

Heidi was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018. She had chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery to remove the tumour and a large part of her lung, followed by immunotherapy. 

Like many Deaf people living in the UK, English is a second language for Heidi, her first is British Sign Language, so she found the communication around her diagnosis and treatment incredibly difficult. She didn’t always have access to an interpreter, so she often didn’t know what was going on.

Heidi is sharing her story as part of our Whoever You Are campaign.

"The communication barriers were awful. I felt ignored. I was in hospital recovering from my operation for 4 months and during that time there were no interpreters...I had no idea what was going on.” 

After treatment, Heidi found the Macmillan Deaf Cancer Support Project, which is an initiative launched by Macmillan and Self Help UK to improve support for Deaf people living with cancer across the UK. 

“It helps to know I’m not the only one and I’m not alone. Everyone in the group has experienced the same barriers. They have been so supportive.” Launched as a 2-year pilot, the project offers one-on-one emotional and practical support remotely in British Sign Language (BSL). Heidi received support from one of the projects trained Deaf volunteers, “If I’m feeling down, I know I can text her and she’ll call straight away on a video call. I don’t think I would be around if she hadn’t been there for me.” 

As well as the one-on-one support through her Deaf volunteer, Heidi also joined the virtual Deaf peer support group. Heidi says: “We share information with each other, we tease each other and have a laugh. And when you’re not feeling so well, you know you can get support.” 

Watch an overview of the project, The video is in BSL and has closed captions (CC).