Tumor "Henry" - blogging against cancer

If a patient is diagnosed with cancer, it will initially be a shock to those affected. It is also unclear to many with whom they can talk about their serious illness. A Berlin cancer patient goes an extraordinary way: She has given her tumor a name and makes her medical history in a blog public.

Diagnosis Cancer - Who and how do I say it?
Hundreds of thousands of people in Germany receive the diagnosis of cancer every year. Many sufferers are scared and initially feel helpless and unsure how and with whom they should talk about their serious illness. The news agency dpa reports in a recent report on people who make their cancer on the Internet public. One of them is Janine Schmidt. When the young woman changed her profile picture on Facebook, her friends immediately knew what was going on: they could see that the Berlin girl was hairless overnight, so obviously had chemotherapy behind her.

"Fuck off Henry "
Since she had been diagnosed with a palm-sized tumor below her ribcage about a year and a half ago, and she had to undergo in-patient therapy, she had withdrawn. The 33-year-old said that she wanted to say with the picture: "I did it, that moved me last year." She has been cancer free for a year. Prior to her diagnosis, she had rather reservedly shared private content on the Internet, but with the post of the photo a knot was bursting: the response to it, as well as the creativity found after therapy, would have been decisive for her own blog entitled: "#FUCKOFFHENRY "(Piss off, Henry").

Make medical history public on the Internet
Through her blog she now lets the public share her story. Even strangers read and comment on their posts. As part of the 6th Berlin Foundation Week, she will give a lecture on April 20 with the title: "Cancer 2.0 - When posting, blogging and tweeting helps". But the Berliner is by no means the only one who publishes her medical history online. Many sufferers, especially from the US, use the hashtag "fuckcancer" on Twitter and Facebook to report on their illness or their relatives: for example, with selfies from the bedside or make-up tips. Internet thinker Jeff Jarvis ("What would Google do?") Started blogging about his prostate cancer back in 2009. Even today he has to defend himself against critics who complain about an excess of very private content on the net.

Bring structure into everyday life
The 2013 died German author Wolfgang Herrndorf also sat down on a blog with his brain tumor apart. The title: "work and structure". Such online diaries can bring structure into everyday life, as the psychologist Elisa Matos May (Berlin Cancer Society) explained. One could compare the happening in the net with traditional self-help groups. "Affected people feel understood and can speak out," Matos May says. It is also important that it is even more important to find other victims, the rarer the disease is. This is the case with Janine Schmidt. Your cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which affects the lymphatic system and causes lymphadenopathy among other things, is very rare. According to her own statements, she did not address websites and forums, and fellow patients were much older than herself. "Often I found out on US sites where the topic is much more openly used in society." She was also optimistic to spread. Now she collects money for the Krebsstiftung Berlin with "Fuck off Henry" T-shirts and tattoos.

Communicate on the Internet under a pseudonym
Janine Schmidt now focuses on healthy living: vegetables, fruit and sports have become part of everyday life. Helpful is a ribbon on the wrist, which indicates whether she has already moved enough today. Other bloggers such as the Italian Federico Viticci record all body values, meals and even sleep. After chemotherapy, he is convinced: no healthy life without a smartphone. Critics of such blogs, however, see a danger in publishing a lot of data. Berlin's data protection officer Alexander Dix said: "Of course, every patient should be able to freely dispose of his medical history." However, the choice of platform should be well considered: "Intimacy on Facebook is an illusion." In addition, employers also searched the Internet for information about applicants. Psychologist Matos May recommends that patients communicate on the Internet under a pseudonym and check forums on their goals and data protection. Janine Schmidt, who works as a freelancer in the PR industry, said, "Who knows what it would have been like, would not I live in the big city and work in a conservative profession?" At the hospital, she even had a Google ban imposed. "I only trusted my doctors and pestered them with questions." (Ad)

Pictures: Julien Christ