Foreword community guidelines

What this place is

It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for your care team. Two people with the same diagnosis can have completely different treatment, and what worked for one may not be right for you. Read these stories the way you would listen to someone in a waiting room: useful, human, and not a prescription.

What makes a good story

Write what you actually went through. The specific detail is the whole point. What you packed, what you ate, what nobody warned you about, what you wish you had asked.

You do not have to be positive. You do not have to be finished. You do not have to have a lesson at the end.

Writing about someone else

If you are writing as a caregiver, you are also writing down another person's medical history. Please tell them, and please write only what they are comfortable being public. If they cannot agree, keep the story about your side of it: what you did, what you learned, what you would tell someone in your position.

If a story here is about you and you did not agree to it, you can ask us to take it down. Use the report link on the story and choose "I am the person this story is about". We will remove it, and you do not have to explain why. You can also write to us if you would rather, or if you want a reply.

Who can write here

You need to be 18 or over to publish a story.

What we will remove

We will take down a story, or part of one, if it:

• Tells people to replace medical treatment with something unproven. Writing about complementary things you did alongside your treatment is welcome. Telling someone to skip chemotherapy is not.
• Identifies someone else in a way that exposes them, including doctors, nurses, family members, and other patients. Naming a clinician to thank them is fine; naming one to accuse them is not (describe what happened without naming them), and nor is naming another patient who has not agreed.
• Shares someone else's medical information without their consent.
• Contains abuse, harassment, or hate.
• Is advertising, promotion, or spam.
• Gives specific medical instructions, like doses. Say what helped you, not what someone else should take.

Two things to write carefully

If you write about prognosis or survival statistics, write them as what you were told, not as what will happen to the person reading. A number given to you was about a group of people, and it was already out of date when you heard it.

And if you write about a time you did not want to keep going, please link somewhere they can get help in the same breath, so the next person reading it has somewhere to go.

Reporting something

Every story has a report link. Use it. A person reads every report, and no filter takes anything down on its own.

If someone has died

If you are family or next of kin and you want a story taken down, write to us and we will help. We will need to check who you are before we remove someone else's account.

If you are struggling right now

Reading or writing about the hardest parts can bring things up. If you are in crisis, please talk to someone today first. Foreword will still be here afterwards. Crisis numbers and a helpline directory are here.