Events
Events for younger women with secondary breast cancer
If you’re under 45 and living with secondary breast cancer, you’re not alone. Meet with other women who understand what you’re going through and get expert information relevant to you at Younger Women with Secondaries Together.
What is Younger Women with Secondaries Together?
If you’re a younger woman with secondary breast cancer, you might feel isolated and invisible. But you’re not alone, and our free events are here for you.
These events give you the chance to meet other women under 45 with secondary breast cancer. You’ll get to talk about what’s on your mind in a safe, welcoming space with people who really understand what you’re going through.
About the events
We offer the following Younger Women with Secondaries Together events:
- Online events: Join 3 sessions over 3 weeks, each held from 1pm to 2.30pm. You can take part from the comfort of your own home. All you need is a device with a reliable internet connection and a webcam.
- In person events: Join a residential event taking place over 2 days with an overnight stay. These events take place in accessible locations across the UK. We provide all meals, refreshments and overnight accommodation free of charge.
Is it for me?
We tailor all information in these events to younger women with secondary breast cancer. To take part, you need to be:
- A woman aged 18 to 45
- Diagnosed with secondary breast cancer
- Living in the UK or a British national living or working abroad
What you can expect
Topics
Our in-person events explore topics including medical information on secondary breast cancer in younger women, clinical trials and mindfulness. You’ll also get to choose to take part in breakout sessions on topics such as:
- Adjusting and adapting
- Relationships and communication
- Supportive care
- Exercise
- Laughter
- Sexuality and intimacy
- Talking with and supporting children
In our online events, you’ll get to ask questions of our secondary breast cancer clinical nurse specialist. An experienced counsellor will also discuss adjusting to a life-limiting illness and will lead a session on mindfulness.
Schedule
Here’s a sample of an online 3-week programme:
- Week 1: Get to know each other and connect
- Week 2: Q&A with our secondary breast cancer clinical nurse specialist
- Week 3: Our experienced counsellor will help you think about adjusting to a life-limiting illness and then lead a mindfulness session to close the event
Here’s a sample of an in-person 2-day programme:
Friday:
- 10am to 10.30am: Registration, tea and coffee
- 10.30am to 11am: Welcome, introduction and icebreaker
- 11am to 12.30pm: Medical information on secondary breast cancer in younger women
- 12.30pm to 1.30pm: Lunch
- 1.30pm to 3pm: Choose from one of the following break-out groups: Adjusting and adapting to a life-limiting illness, supportive care, relationships and communication
- 3pm to 3.15pm: Refreshments
- 3.15pm to 4.15pm: Choose from one of the following well-being sessions: laughter workshop, exercise
- 4.15pm: Free time
- 7pm: Dinner and social time
Saturday:
- 09.30am to 11am: Clinical research and trials
- 11.00am to 11.30pm: Refreshments
- 11.30am to 1.00pm: Choose from one of the following break-out groups: Adjusting and adapting to a life-limiting illness, talking with and supporting children, sexuality and intimacy
- 1.00pm to 2.15pm: Lunch
- 2.15pm to 2.45pm: Other services and support, staying in touch
- 2.45pm to 3.15pm: Mindfulness
- 3.15pm: Close
Signing up
Find a Younger Women with Secondaries Together event that works for you. You can choose between different dates for online events and different locations for in-person events.
Once you’ve signed up, we’ll send you an email confirming your place.
Find an eventTaking part online
For our online Younger Women with Secondaries Together events, we encourage you to keep your camera on. It helps everyone to feel more connected. We’ll also invite you to introduce yourself, ask any questions and contribute to group discussions if you want to.
Taking part in person
At our in-person Younger Women with Secondaries Together events, there’s space to connect with others and take part in break-out sessions. You can choose which breakout session to go to when you register.
Group size
For online events, there are usually around 6 to 12 people taking part.
For in-person residential events, up to 40 people attend.
Event leaders
Our staff run Younger Women with Secondaries Together. For online events, a qualified counsellor facilitates each session.
For in-person events, someone from our services team or a qualified therapist will facilitate. There will also be an expert speaker on relevant topics. 2 clinical nurse specialists also attend the events to answer your questions and offer support. Please note that they can’t offer medical treatment or individual medical advice.
Length
Our in-person events take place over 2 days with an overnight stay. The sessions start at 10am on Friday and finish at 4.15pm. You’ll have some free time before dinner at 7pm. On Saturday, the sessions begin at 9.30am and finish at 3.15pm.
Our online events take place from 1pm to 2.30pm. We run 3 sessions over 3 weeks.
Privacy
All our events are confidential. The facilitator will create a safe and private environment so that everyone can speak openly. At the start of each session, we’ll remind everyone that whatever people say in the group stays in the group.
Locations
Our online events take place over Zoom, so you can join from the comfort of your own home.
Our in-person residential events typically take place in Bristol in the spring, and in Leeds or Manchester in the autumn. We’ll send you the exact venue address once you’ve registered.
Find an eventRefreshments
For in-person events, we provide all meals and refreshments free of charge. We provide tea, coffee, water and biscuits throughout the day. We’ll also have lunch and dinner on Friday, and breakfast and lunch on Saturday.
If you have any dietary requirements, let us know when you register so we can make sure they’re catered for.
Getting to events
All in-person events take place in venues close to a train station and with parking on-site or nearby. Venues have accessible toilets and disabled car parking. Rooms are located on the ground floor or first floor with lift access.
Our online events take place on Zoom. We’ll send you some guidance about how to set up Zoom on your phone, tablet or laptop before the event. If you’re still having trouble, let us know and someone on the team can talk you through it.
If you need support to take part in an online or in-person event, call our team on 0345 077 1893 or email secondaryservices@breastcancernow.org. We’ll do what we can to make sure you can take part.
Attending and cancelling
We understand that sometimes you might not feel well enough to attend, plans change unexpectedly and you might not be able to come anymore. That’s totally OK.
If you need to cancel, please let us know as soon as you can so that we can offer your place to someone on the waiting list. We’ll send you reminders leading up to the event, and you’ll be able to cancel your reservation on our online booking system.
For our online 3-week events, please do let us know if you can’t make one of the sessions. If we don’t hear from you, we might get in touch to check you’re OK. We can also help you reschedule to attend another session.
Financial support
We believe everyone should have access to support. All our services are free thanks to our generous supporters. This includes meals, refreshments and overnight accommodation for our in-person events.
We know that getting to events might still cost money, for example if you have to pay for travel. If you’re worried about these costs, our Access Fund can help. Email us at accessfund@breastcancernow.org or call 0345 077 1893, and we'll do our best to support you.
Healthcare professional referral
If you’re a healthcare professional and would like to refer one of your patients to Younger Women with Secondaries Together, please use our dedicated referral form.
Refer nowI found these sessions really useful, and it was really good to connect with people of a similar age going through the same thing.
More support
-
Talk to our nurses
Whether you’re going through treatment, worried about signs and symptoms or supporting someone you
love. If you’ve got a question, our nurses are here to help. -
Join our forum
Our forum is a safe, confidential, online space where you can talk about what’s on your mind in a with people who understand. Thousands of people affected by breast cancer use our forum. And they’re always
ready to share, listen and support each other.