Film to help patients navigate cancer ‘limbo land’

Navigating the stages of waiting on a cancer pathway is the subject of a film produced for patients by patients and the Kent and Medway Cancer Alliance.

Waiting for results or the ‘what next’, worried about the unknown, experiencing uncertainty and anxiety – cancer patients relate to these feelings, describing it as being in ‘limbo land’.

The limbo land film – and individual patient stories – cover what it means to navigate how it feels to wait in between diagnosis, treatment and recovery, with advice from those who have been on the pathway and can share their experience.

The film has been co-produced by patients who attend the cancer alliance’s Working Together Group. They identified a need to raise awareness and improve information available to cancer patients about the unknowns on a cancer pathway.  

Kent and Medway Cancer Alliance User Involvement Manager Tracey Ryan, who runs the Working Together Group, said: “Limbo land came about because a patient emailed me to say they were in limbo land, and the idea was sparked. It’s been a privilege to have been involved and to have heard the patient’s stories.”

Ian Vousden, Kent and Medway Cancer Alliance Director, said: “This is a powerful film with great messages from patients to other patients and their families. It’s a fantastic resource.”

Chris Wheal, a member of the Working Together Group and who features in the film, said: “At the start of a cancer diagnosis, the patient situation is in a word dire, but this film provides all important basic information, in a very easy, understandable, relatable and watchable format which is so important for new cancer patients at a time when concentration and focus is stretched to the limit.

"I hope patients will take inspiration and comfort from watching the video as well as realising they are not alone.”