There can be few more frightening words than 'cancer'. It's something that everyone hopes they will never have to deal with.

And yet current statistics show that 1 in 2 people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. That's one person every 2 minutes.

The fall-out from being told you have cancer is massive. As well as yourself, it affects your family, friends and work colleagues. You will undoubtedly have fears for what the future holds: what treatment you will undergo, how it will affect you, and what your long-term prognosis is.

You may well be worried about your job and how you and your family will cope financially if you're unable to work because you become too ill.

Due to advances in treatment, being told you have cancer is no longer the life-ending news it once was. There are over 200 different types of cancer, with different treatment options tailored to every patient's individual needs. This means that everyone's experience of cancer will be different and the support they will need will vary.

How LionHeart can help 

Every year LionHeart supports a number of RICS professionals who are living with or affected by cancer, including people whose partners or children who have cancer. There are a number of ways we are able to offer support.

Emotional support
Just having someone to talk to in confidence can make a huge difference, and sometimes it can help to speak to someone who is not a family member or close friend. LionHeart's support officers are specially trained and experienced in helping people who have cancer and will help work out all the ways we can offer you and your family support.

If you call the helpline you will be assigned to one key support officer, who can be there to support you through every step of your cancer journey.

Call us free on 0800 009 2960 or email info@lionheart.org.uk 

Counselling
Coming to terms with your cancer diagnosis can be very difficult and it is quite normal to feel a whole range of emotions. Obviously counselling will not cure cancer, but what it may do is help give you coping strategies during and after treatment, and will also help some people overcome the anxiety or depression than living with cancer can trigger.

LionHeart offers fast access to our free professional counselling with our in-house BACP therapists, whether it's you or a loved one who has cancer.

Find out more about counselling here

Financial support 
If cancer is affecting you financially, perhaps because you or your partner is unable to work, and you have less coming in each month than you have going out then LionHeart may be able to offer a financial grant to help ease the burden.

Workplace support
More people than ever are working through their cancer journey, and more people than ever are working at the same time as caring for a loved one who has cancer. In the UK alone, there are around 109,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed among working age people aged 16 to 64, and a staggering total of 750,000 working age people affected.

 A vast majority of cancer sufferers (87%) told a study by cancer charity Macmillan they felt it was important to them to keep working after their diagnosis, both for financial reasons and to give them a sense of normality.  Yet research shows many workplaces are ill-equipped to support those employees.

LionHeart is now working in partnership with cancer charity Maggie's to offer a new  Cancer in the Workplace workshop for managers and HR staff, covering:

• Types of cancer and treatment
• Impacts of cancer diagnosis
• Challenges in the workplace
• Supporting an individual's return to work 

The Big C and Grabbing Life - Sara Cameron

Cancer wasn't meant to happen to us - Steve Lees

Facing cancer: the patient and the partner - Peter and Emma