Use of Cancer Chat
Content we do not allow
Registration
Private messaging
Keeping you safe
Studies & Research
Copyright & third-party rights
Restricting  access
Privacy Policy
General
Disclaimer  

Use of Cancer Chat

By registering with Cancer Chat you are agreeing to the Terms and Conditions set out below. Please also refer to our Community Guidelines and make sure you read and understand both the Terms and Conditions and the guidelines before you use the forum.

Please note that we reserve the right to change the Terms and Conditions at any time so please check back regularly to make sure you understand the terms and conditions that apply to your use of the forum.

You must be at least 14 years of age to register with and participate in Cancer Chat. If you are under this age, please do not try to access the forum. Anyone found to be using the forum 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 our website.  

Cancer Chat is aimed primarily at a UK based audience. Currently, we do not have the resources to accept any new members to Cancer Chat from outside the UK, and neither our nurses nor our moderators can answer questions about non-UK cancer treatments and services. Our website has information about overseas cancer organisations that offer online support and information for those resident outside the UK.  

You are responsible for any content that you post on the forum or send via the private message function.  You are also responsible for checking that you have posted in the right place on the forum.  

You are responsible for keeping the details of your password and account confidential.

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 check your facts before you post on Cancer Chat. Inaccurate information is not helpful.  If you need to edit or delete any of your content, you will need to contact a Cancer Chat moderator via cancerchat@cancer.org.uk who will do this for you.  For more information about how we moderate Cancer Chat, please see our forum guide.

Content we do not allow

• You must not upload, share or post links to images of a graphic, intimate or personal nature, or for the purposes of diagnosis. We cannot diagnose you or give a medical opinion via the forum. 
• You must not post your full name or any personal details anywhere on Cancer Chat. You must not share phone numbers or any personal details about a third party. This is to protect you and others from intrusive contact from people parties you may not know. 
• Posting of confidential information on the forum is prohibited. If you think that your message may include confidential information, then do not post it. 
• Do not post any material that names individual healthcare providers.   
• You must not post content that promotes or advocates alternative therapies or cancer cures 
• You must not share private petitions, advertisements, self-promotion, direct selling, chain letters, pyramid schemes or requests for money.
• 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. 

You must not add, upload or share through Cancer Chat any content (including text, images, avatars, photographs, links to external sites, or any other information and materials) that: 

• Contains any information about any person under the age of 18. 
• Is abusive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, fraudulent, threatening or defamatory towards any person or organisation whether a user on Cancer Chat or not.   
• Is discriminatory or may 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.
• Is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, bullying, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening or otherwise in violation of the law.
• May be harmful to users of any age on Cancer Chat, including content that: is pornographic; encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide, self-harm and eating disorders; abusive or incites hatred; bullying content; and content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for violence or dangerous stunts and challenges highly likely to result in serious injury, and self-administering harmful substances, or which otherwise poses a material risk of harm to children (“Harmful Content”). 
• Is illegal, including but not limited to content relating to terrorism; Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA); grooming; hate; harassment, stalking, threats and abuse; controlling or coercive behaviour; drugs and psychoactive substances; and encouraging or assisting suicide (“Illegal Content”).  

 
Registration 

• To register with Cancer Chat you must provide a unique username. As Cancer Chat is a public forum, please do not use your full name and make sure you choose a username that does not identify you or compromise your anonymity.  This is to protect you from intrusive contact from people you may not know.  
• Your username and avatar should be appropriate. Please do not create a username or upload an avatar for the purpose of diagnosis or use your avatar to make political statements or 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. We reserve the right to suspend or change usernames which may cause offence, or are abusive, vulgar or obscene.
• 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.  
• You may only register once for Cancer Chat. Anyone found to have registered twice will be excluded from using the forum. 

Private Messaging

The use of private messaging is intended for members to conduct private conversations with friends they have made on the forum or with others who have shared cancer experiences. It is not intended for unsolicited emails, spam or harassment. Please do not abuse this service.  

If you choose to use the private message function, you do so at your own risk and should take common sense precautions. Only accept a friend request if you are happy to be contacted privately. Do not share personal details such as email address or phone numbers.  

You can read more about how to use private messaging and how to stay safe when using private messaging in our forum guides

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.  

You may complain to us about any private message or unwanted contact from another Cancer Chat user and this will be investigated. See our help guide on reporting content and making a complaint.  

 
Keeping you safe 

Keeping everyone safe when using Cancer Chat is important to us.  We do this by: 

• Ensuring that the forum is fully moderated 365 days a year. Our moderators have guidance to follow and there are processes in place to ensure that Illegal or Harmful Content (including where a child has made a complaint to us) is swiftly removed from the forum once it is detected and verified.   

• Using the settings offered through the forum software to filter out the most harmful content on the private message function.  These settings can only be controlled by a moderator and cannot be turned off or adjusted by users.   

• Not allowing photo, video or file sharing on the forum.   

• Making it easy as possible for you to report content you are concerned about, please see our forum guide reporting content and making a complaint

• Reviewing and responding to any reports or complaints we receive about inappropriate, illegal or harmful content within 24-72 hours, with prioritization based on potential harm. If you flag something to a moderator, we will let you know what action we have taken, but ask that you do not discuss any moderation decisions on the forum

In addition, in order to comply with our duties under the Online Safety Act 2023, we minimise the length of time for which all illegal content remains on the Forum once we have become aware of it.  

In the unlikely event that we become aware of terrorism content or content that relates to child sexual exploitation and abuse or any other illegal content, we review and respond to reports or complaints we receive promptly and remove such content immediately once it has been verified.  Cancer Chat is a safe and highly moderated forum, and we have assessed the risk of this type of content appearing on the forum as low.

In the unlikely event of concerns about child exploitation, terrorism, threats of violence or any other safeguarding issue, we ensure that such content is immediately escalated to our Safeguarding Team for further action and/or directly to the appropriate law enforcement of regulatory bodies.

We ensure that content moderation teams are provided with suitable training and resources to effectively process reports and complaints regarding alleged Illegal Content and that moderation teams are set internal targets for reviewing reports and complaints regarding alleged Illegal content, so as to ensure that Illegal Content is taken down swiftly.

We monitor the risks that the Platform is being used for disseminating Illegal Content, and ensuring that potential risks are escalated internally.

Studies and Research 

Using Cancer Chat to gather information for surveys, articles and research studies, or similar, is not allowed. We do not allow any surveys or information gathering for the purposes of marketing or commercial enterprise. Please note that under our terms and conditions, you are not permitted to solicit members through our forums or by private message. If you are a journalist looking for case studies, please contact our Press Office  

Clinical Research Requests: We do share appropriate opportunities with the Cancer Chat community, where they can collaborate or get involved with appropriate research projects where we are satisfied that participation is of value to the members. All researchers wishing to post a request should contact us first. In order to maintain the integrity of the site, we only permit research opportunities from recognised clinical establishments, and we check researcher credentials (affiliation, research record, publications) and then respond with approval or rejection. All requests are considered on a case-by-case basis and must be UK based. Please note that under our terms and conditions, you are not permitted to solicit members through our forums or private message to take part in your study. 

Academic Research Requests: We are unable to accept requests to post student projects or to help with academic research. Please note that under our terms and conditions you are not permitted to post requests on the forum nor to solicit members through our forums or private message to take part in your study. 

Private petitions are not permitted on the forum

Copyright and third-party rights 

You agree that you will not use Cancer Chat to post or private 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, but you agree to remain responsible for any links you add. We reserve the right to remove any links on the public forum that we consider inappropriate.  

If you upload or post 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. 

Restricting access

Provided you comply with these terms and conditions and follow our community guidelines, you may continue to access Cancer Chat.

We reserve the right to restrict your access to Cancer Chat and to edit or remove any of your posts or other content on the forum without prior contact in our absolute discretion.

As a last resort we may issue a ban (either temporary or permanent) if it becomes evident that you are unwilling to keep to these terms and conditions and/or the community guidelines. This will only occur if we feel it is necessary to protect others or the integrity of the forum.

If a complaint is made against you as a result of any material you post or private message, we reserve the right to suspend or close your account and only reinstate it if the complaint is resolved in your favour. 

We reserve the right to view in its entirety any private conversation where a complaint has been made to a moderator for a breach of these terms and conditions or our community guidelines.  

If you breach any of these terms and conditions, it will not be an excuse to say that you did not read the terms and conditions.

Privacy Policy 

When you register for Cancer Chat, we collect your username, email address, password (encrypted and not visible to us) and IP address. Your Geo-IP address is logged by us so that we can prevent any spam, fraud or abuse of our Site. Cancer Chat asks you to provide your email address so that you can receive automated notifications from any threads you are following or content you are subscribed to. We may, if necessary, contact you about administrative issues and changes to the forum.  With your consent, we may also use your email address to send you information about our work

You can choose to opt-out of receiving notifications from Cancer Chat at any time by logging in to your account and going to your 'Account Settings' where you can manage your notification preferences. You can opt in or out of receiving our newsletter by going to your profile and clicking 'edit'. 

Cancer Research UK will only share your details in exceptional circumstances to comply with the nurses’ code of professional conduct or where legally required, for example where a child reports abuse, or someone reports serious self-harm or a serious intention of harming someone else. 

For more information on how we are protecting your data, you can read Cancer Research UK's privacy policy in full

General

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 will not be liable if for any reason Cancer Chat is unavailable for any period. 

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 content you post on the forum or privately message to another Cancer Chat user; and (ii) any violation by you of your obligations under these terms and conditions.

You have a right to bring a claim for breach of contract in respect of these terms and conditions in the event that (1) content which you generate, upload or share on Cancer Chat is taken down, or access to it is restricted, in breach of the terms and conditions or (2) your access is suspended (including any ban imposed on your use of Cancer Chat) in breach of these terms and conditions.

 

Disclaimer 

Opinions posted or private 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. 

The information provided by the cancer information nurses is not a substitute for professional care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health problem you should consult your doctor. The cancer information nurses provide an information service only and are unable to access emergency care or talk to health professionals on your behalf.