CancerCare is a national nonprofit organization that provides free, professional support services to anyone affected by cancer.

Because we know that cancer affects far more than your body, we help you in those areas of your life beyond medical treatment. CancerCare is like a professional cancer assistant, answering your questions, finding you help, or just listening when you need an understanding ear. For more information about CancerCare’s services, please visit our website at: www.cancercare.org.

• CancerCare is not able to handle requests for immediate help in crisis situations, such as if you are feeling suicidal or in need of immediate assistance due to emotional or medical emergencies. If you are feeling like you are in crisis and want immediate attention please call the following organizations, they can help you:

  ·       For medical or psychiatric emergencies please call 911

  ·       988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org/

Only registered members of CancerCare’s Online Community can log in. Once you have registered, and activated your account, you will have the ability to log in. All of our groups are private and subscription based; you will not be able to access groups immediately after registration. Before you are approved for a group you will only have the ability to browse our public spaces. If you are a new member and would like to register, click here.

If you have already registered but are having trouble logging in because you need assistance with your username or password, you can request your username or password.

For more information or questions, please contact the Online Administrator at moderator@cancercare.org.

Go to the Log In screen and click the link Forgot Your Password? or Forgot Username? Fill in your username or email. An email will be sent to your account with an activation/new password link.

CancerCare's Online Community is a private, “subscription only” program; you will not be able to participate in a support group until your registration has been reviewed and approved by a CancerCare Social Worker.

Since our groups are run by licensed social workers, we need to assess and understand your needs by collecting thorough information about you and your current situation. If an online support group is not the best option to suit your current needs, we are able to provide resources and suggestions for other kinds of support.

First, make sure that you are logged in to CancerCare's Online Community. You can log in by clicking the Log In link and entering your username and password. If you are logged in and cannot see the group you requested, then you may not have been approved for the group yet. All registrations are reviewed by an oncology social worker who will review your registration information and make sure that this is the best group to meet your needs. This can take up to 5 business days.

To maximize the experience of being in a support group, all groups require at least a minimum number of approved participants to open. You may, therefore, remain on the waiting list until there are enough approved participants to open the group.

If you have any questions about this process, or how far your application/registration is in process, please feel free to write our Online Administrators at moderator@cancercare.org.

Typically, our registration form stops you from proceeding if some of the fields are missing information.  Please follow the prompts on the registration page to complete the form.  If you are still encountering issues, contact us at moderator@cancercare.org so we can troubleshoot.

In order to join a group you must register by completing the registration form.  Click here to start the registration process.

Currently, we only allow members to belong to one Patient, Caregiver, or Bereaved group at a time.

The groups take place on a message board.  Our groups do not have a particular meeting time and do not include video chat or live chat functionality, such as Zoom.  Due to the nature of a bulletin board, you can think of the groups as meeting all day everyday (24/7). This means you can sign in to your group to read and reply to messages at *any* time that is convenient for you.

*Please keep in mind* this also means that there may or may not be anyone else signed in to your group at a given time; this includes the moderators who cannot be active in the groups 24 hrs a day.

To access your profile, you will see your username in the upper right corner of the screen.  Click the down arrow and then click your username.  Your profile will appear where you can add an avatar or update your notifications settings. 

To add an avatar, click 'upload image' and choose an image from your device.  Use the zoom bar below the picture window to resize your picture. Click 'save changes' when you're finished.  If you want to delete the avatar, click the 'remove' button.

To update your email notification settings, click the 'notifications' tab on the left side of the screen.  Choose your preferred setting, instantly, daily, weekly or never.  Then click 'update' to save your preferences.

Please note that you are not able to change your username or email address on this page.  If you need either your username or email address updated, please email moderator@cancercare.org and we will udpate your profile in our database.  

If you are not able to log in - Go to the Log In page (onlinegroups.cancercare.org)and click the link Forgot Your Password? or Forgot Username? Fill in your username or email. An email will be sent to your account with an activation/new password link.

If you are logged in and would like to change your password - You will see your username in the upper right corner of the screen.  Click the down arrow and click 'change password' under your avatar/profule picture.  You will enter your current password and new password, click 'update password'.

To update your email notification settings, click the 'notifications' tab on the left side of the screen.  Choose your preferred setting, instantly, daily, weekly or never.  Then click 'update' to save your preferences.

First, click on the title of your group.  From there, you will see a list of various folders such as the introductions folder.  Click on the title of the folder you would like to post in.  At the very top of the folder you will see a 'reply' button.  Click reply and a text box will pop up where you can type your message, click 'submit'.  Your post will show up at the bottom of the discussion thread.

To respond directly to a member's post, click the conversation bubbles to the right of their post.  The text box will come up with a quoted message from the person you are replying to.  Type your message and click 'submit'.  

Please note that we do not allow members to private message each other on our platform. Our goal is to keep conversation within the group space to cultivate the true group experience. You can use the message center to contact your moderator when needed.

After you have submitted your post or topic you cannot reopen it to edit its contents. Only your group moderator or an Online Administrator can edit or delete posts or topics from a group space. If you would like to edit or remove a message, please feel free to message your moderator through the message center.