Once you’ve walked through the door of the Pickering Cancer Drop-In Centre as a visitor, there’s no time limit on how often you can pop in for a chat or how many months or, indeed, years you visit us for.
Steve has been a visitor at Pickering for around ten years, having discovered, quite by chance, that he had lymphoma.
“It’s such a long time ago now that I can’t quite remember how I found out about Pickering,” he says. “But, I think somebody at Maidstone Hospital told me it was here. To be honest, I’d got quite ‘down in the dumps’ and, having spoken to others since then, I don’t think I was alone in feeling like that. My wife encouraged me to knock on the door that first time.”
“I discovered it was a place I could let it all out – my frustration, fear and loneliness. It felt that people had begun to ignore me when they discovered I had cancer, they’d even cross the street. I guess, in reality, they didn’t know what to say.”
“I come here maybe twice a week and you don’t have to talk about cancer, it’s just an opportunity to chat. I’ve made friends with a few other men who come in and we talk about our daily lives. However, there’s no pressure to talk and sometimes it’s nice to just sit and relax and even have a little snooze! It’s the company which makes a difference.”
Steve has also benefitted from a number of the therapies available to our visitors, including massage and reflexology.
“I find that it really helps my mind and it’s an opportunity to release some fear,” he says.