Never Alone - Healthy Life Essex

Never Alone – a community to support you whilst you support and care for your loved one

Never Alone is an online charity which offers free support to those caring for and supporting loved ones through illness. The charity provides a platform for people to talk about what they are facing with other individuals who are in similar situations. The charity was founded in 2010 by Gemma Firth after her husband, Mark, was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer. Below, Gemma shares her experience and what inspired her to start Never Alone.

“It was just three months after we had been celebrating Mark’s 30th birthday that we were hit with those three words that everybody dreads, “You have cancer”. In that short moment my whole world fell apart, just months before we were looking forward to the next stage of our lives and now we were sitting in a hospital room receiving devastating news that would change our lives forever.

Prior to Mark’s diagnosis, we were about to embark on our journey towards starting our own family and were due to start our IVF treatment. Admittedly, I had reservations about going ahead with the IVF whilst Mark was undergoing treatment however, he assured me that having something positive to look forward to was the best thing for him. So we went ahead with our first round of IVF, which unfortunately failed, and it was only then that the reality and shock of Mark’s diagnosis really hit me. Up until this point I had stayed strong, supporting and caring for Mark and I was determined to continue being strong for him.

During Mark’s treatment we were exceptionally fortunate that we were surrounded by extremely supportive friends and family who were all on hand to help us whenever possible. However, despite having this amazing network around me I truly had never felt so alone. All that I wanted was to speak to somebody that understood what I was going through and that would want to talk to me about something other than the cancer that was beginning to dominate our lives. I knew that I couldn’t be the only person that felt this way and it was this that inspired me to start Never Alone.

Never Alone is a safe and secure environment that offers free support to all of those in need and gives everybody the chance to take five minutes to themselves without the guilt of leaving their loved ones at home. Whether you want to talk about your experiences, your feelings or even the latest TV show, Never Alone is the perfect place to do so. On top of this, Never Alone also provides access to charities and other websites making it as easy as possible for you to find the right support and information.

We are very lucky that Mark has now been in remission for four years, we have three beautiful children and for this we are thankful everyday. However, even though Mark has beaten cancer it will never truly leave me. I think about it all of the time which is why, even now, I am still grateful for the support of the Never Alone members.”

Join www.neveralone.org.uk to talk, console and communicate
with others in similar situations to yourself!