Cancer Chat | Terms and conditions

Your use of this site

Medical information and advice posted or privately messaged by users of Cancer Chat must never be used in place of the advice of a health professional.

• Please do not promote alternative therapies on Cancer Chat.
• To register with Cancer Chat you must provide a unique username. You may only register once. Anyone found to have registered twice will be excluded from using the forum.
• You must not impersonate anyone else, including, but not limited to, any Cancer Research UK employee, Cancer Chat staff, or falsely state or suggest that you have an affiliation with a person or association.
• We advise that you do not post any personal details on Cancer Chat. You must not post phone numbers or a third party's personal details. This is to help protect you and others from intrusive contact from third parties you may not know.
• We advise caution if you want to meet another Cancer Chat user. If you do choose to meet another user you do so at your own risk and should take common sense precautions.
• Other Cancer Chat users cannot be blocked from sending you a private message unless their account is terminated. You may complain to us about private messages from other Cancer Chat users and this will be investigated (see complaints section below). If you choose to use the private message function, you do so at your own risk and should take common sense precautions.
• Do not post any material that names individual healthcare professionals.
• Please check your facts. Inaccurate information is not helpful.
• Posting of confidential information is prohibited. If you think that your message may include confidential information then do not post it.
• Advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and requests for money are prohibited.
• You are responsible for the content of any messages that you post on the forum or privately message.
• You must be over 14 years of age in order to participate in Cancer Chat. If you are under this age please do not try to access the board, anyone found to be using the board under this age will have their account terminated. If you are under 14 years of age, you can find organisations that offer information and support for children and young people with cancer on CancerHelp UK.
• You must not upload, post, transmit, or make available, any material that contains viruses or any other computer code, programs or files designed to destroy, interrupt, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.
• Please check that you have posted in the right place.
• You are responsible for keeping the details of your password and account confidential and are fully responsible for all postings that come from your password or account.

Respect for others

• Postings and private messages must not contain any material that is abusive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, fraudulent, unalawful, threatening or defamatory towards any person whether a user on Cancer Chat or not.
• Do not post nor privately message any material which may be discriminatory or cause offence on the grounds of an individual's sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or working status.
• You may not use Cancer Chat to post nor privately message any material or links to any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening or otherwise in violation of the law.
• You must not post, nor privately message any link or any material that contains any information about any person under the age of 18.
• Please do not attack someone for having an opinion that differs from your own; if you disagree with someone, please express yourself respectfully.
• Remember that Cancer Chat is a public forum and your comments may stay on-line for a long time. Try to make sure you cannot be misunderstood.

Copyright and third party rights

• You agree that you will not use Cancer Chat to post nor privately message any copyright material or intellectual property that is not your own without the express permission of the copyright or intellectual property holder.
• You may add links to internal or external sites within your post or private message but you agree to remain responsible for any links you add. We reserve the right to remove any links on the public foum that we consider inappropriate.
• If you post or privately message any links to photos you must ensure you have the permission of person who owns the photos and the people who are in the photos. Links to photos that include children are prohibited.

Restricting access

• Provided you stick to these common sense rules you may continue to access Cancer Chat.
• We reserve the right to restrict access to Cancer Chat for any user.
• We reserve the right to remove any post breaking these rules without prior contact with the author.
• If you are responsible for any breach of these terms and conditions it will not be an excuse to say that you did not read the terms and conditions.
• As a last resort we may issue a ban (either temporary or permanent) if it becomes evident that you unwilling to keep to these terms and conditions. This will only occur if we feel it is necessary to protect others or the integrity of the forum.

Your promise to us

• You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Cancer Research UK from and against.

i) any claim, liability, cost, damage or loss we may incur (including, without limitation legal costs) as a result of any material you post on our forum or privately message to another Cancer Chat user.

ii) any violation by you of your obligations under these terms and conditions.

Complaints

• If you wish to make a complaint regarding a post (i.e. that you think it is objectionable or in breach these terms and conditions) then please contact us using the 'report this post' button which is on every message. You can also contact us using the 'contact us' button at the top of every page.
• If a complaint is made against you as a result of any material you post or privately message to another Cancer Chat user, we reserve the right to suspend your account and only reinstate it if the complaint is resolved.

General

We reserve the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time. If you are uncertain about anything in these Terms and Conditions, please contact us using the 'contact us' button at the top of every page or write to us at Cancer Chat, Patient Information Department, Cancer Research UK, Angel Building, 407 St John Street, London, EC1V 4AD. This website is intended for people based within the United Kingdom. We cannot guarantee that the site or the contents of the site complies with the requirements of, or is appropriate for use in, other countries. We will try to ensure Cancer Chat's availability, but shall not be liable if for any reason Cancer Chat is unavailable for any period.

Disclaimer

Opinions posted or privately messaged on Cancer Chat are those of the individual and in no way represent the view of Cancer Research UK. We reserve the right to delete any message for any reason whatsoever at our sole discretion.