Volunteer Resources

You don’t have to be a cancer expert to be able to support people affected by cancer. Don’t be afraid to ask for a bit more information if the person you are speaking to uses medical terminology or any words you don’t understand to describe their experiences. 

If you would like to know more about cancer: 

• explore the LearnZone module 'Cancer Awareness' 
• browse our Information and Support web pages where you'll find information on understanding, treating, coping with and organising cancer
• search by cancer type to narrow the information down so it's as relevant to you as possible.

Our volunteer prompt card was designed to help prepare volunteers for speaking with people affected by cancer. 

It is neatly contained in a pass holder and can be kept in your pocket as a helpful reminder of the Listen, Acknowledge, Refer volunteering model.

We will soon have an interactive video on Learnzone, which will provide more information about the model as well as the opportunity to try out having the conversation yourself before you do it in real life.

If a conversation upsets you please get in touch with your Macmillan contact or volunteer manager to talk it through. 

You may find it's brought up thoughts or feelings regarding your own cancer experience that you'd like to talk about, in which case please do contact the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, Monday to Friday, 9am-8pm.

You could also visit our 'Key Tools' resource on LearnZone, which includes tips on maintaining your own wellbeing.

By giving your time to have those conversations you are doing so much. Sometimes you might feel it’s not enough - but be assured that even just talking to people really helps. Prompting them to find the words to describe events and feelings can help them make sense of what’s happening, and being listened to and heard is reassuring. 

Thank you for all that you do. All of those conversations make a real difference to the lives of people affected by cancer.