Cancer Self Help
Live Life to the Full
Who are we
This is the web site of the West Suffolk, Thetford and Sudbury Cancer Support Group
We have been helping each other through our Cancer Journeys for about Twenty two Years
As will be seen from the pages of this site we do talk about Cancer when it is necessary to help someone through a situation. But we also try to Live Life to the Full and enjoy ourselves
as will be seen from our events page we love to trip off to a London Theatre or go to a tranquill garden. We have speakers on many subjects, Horses, Cuba, and the Wilds of Scotland.
So, as can be seen, we do try to enjoy ourselves even during the down times.
However we do try to support each other through treatments and when we have some knowledge to pass on to someone in need.
Celebrating life despite the scourge of cancer
Honesty, humour and hope in equal measures were the hallmarks of a service of celebration held by the West Suffolk, Thetford & Sudbury Cancer Support Group at St Gregory's Church in Sudbury on Sunday 25th October. The organisation, which has been helping cancer sufferers through their journeys, also gave thanks for the life of Janet Place, the wife of John, chairman of the support group. Janet passed away in August. Up to 50 people congregated in the church for the service officiated by Revd Canon Gregory Webb, the priest in charge. Bob Cockle, recently retired as Mayor of Bury St Edmunds and who is President of the Support Group, gave the keynote address.
In his speech laced with wit and honesty, Mr Cockle, who lost his wife to cancer a year ago, admitted he was still trying to understand why she had fallen victim to the disease. He said of his soul mate: "How do you cope with the guilt? I'm still here, she's gone." Nevertheless he felt her presence and jokingly said: "I still have to ask her permission to spend my own money!" As a widower trying to cope with domesticity, he wondered: "Do you dust first or Hoover first? Perhaps, one dusts only when one can scrawl one's name?" His sincere hope was that "a magic cure for the disease would be found some day". 
Mr Place, in a response, volunteered a piece of advice to Mr Cockle, saying that he was now in thrall to Aunt Bessie, the "patron saint of widowers". Her food product range meant that one only had to "stick it in the oven and press the right buttons".
The camraderie of the group during the service, which was both solemn and celebratory, was visibly evident. Some silently wept as the poignant song Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy was played during which names of group members who had lost their lives to cancer were read out so that "we remember those we no longer see". 
Revd Webb acknowledged the honesty, humour and hope in Mr Cockle's address and thanked him for it. Besides the speeches, readings and hymns, Mrs Eileen Borley, Mrs V Mathers of Bury St Edmunds, Mrs M Bedster of Thetford and Mr John Tarling of Sudbury read poems that celebrated life. Revd Tony Stratta, the h