Articles
Blogs and articles written for various organisations about managing work and cancer. We have organised these according to whether you are: someone who has/has had cancer; an HR professional or a policy maker about managing cancer in the workplace; a line manager; a carer, colleague or supporter of someone with cancer. Choose from the options below:
Or, click here to view a full list of articles.
The Importance of Cancer Policies
Posted: 22nd April 2025
This spring the UK government launched an independent review to Keep Britain Working, to review the role of UK employers in creating and maintaining an healthy and inclusive workplace, The figures that have driven this review are startling: “Today there are nearly 800,000 or 40% more people of working-age who are economically inactive for health… [Read More]
8 Top Tips for Managing Work and Cancer
Posted: 1st April 2025
Receiving a cancer diagnosis is a very personal experience that affects everyone differently. Adding the question of how you manage work during your diagnosis and treatment can be an additional strain at a difficult time. Working With Cancer is a social enterprise dedicated to bridging the knowledge gap for people encountering the need to manage… [Read More]
Supporting Employees Through Cancer Treatment and Recovery: A Manager’s Responsibility
Posted: 18th September 2024
One of our coachees about to go for her breast screening has asked us to publish this blog about ‘scanxiety’ and how managers should be supporting employees living and working with or after a cancer diagnosis. This is an important reminder to all those with management responsibility.
Black Spot
Posted: 27th June 2024
Our regular contributor, Harmer Parr, is now on palliative care, designed to make his last months as comfortable as possible. In this article, he reflects on his cancer diagnoses and treatments over the years and his palliative journey.
Palliative Perceptions
Posted: 2nd May 2024
In this second article, Harmer Parr writes about his palliative care, which is often rather misunderstood, and how he and his family are adapting to this new stage in his life.
I’ve been on palliative care for two months now. As I revealed in my last article, I was transferred for hospital to hospice. While death is a long-established taboo subject, I’ve discovered that the words ‘hospice’ and ‘palliative’ create their own frisson as well. Can friends send you a message asking simply how you are? Do they wonder if this implies the question: ‘are you dead yet? ’Well, the answer to that question is that I’m still around. I was told to ‘think months not years’ and I’m determined not to be short-changed.’
How to navigate the transition from cancer treatment to the workplace
Posted: 4th April 2024
An article by our founder, Barbara Wilson, about how to navigate the transition from cancer treatment to the workplace recently appeared in UNLEASH magazine. ‘Cancer isn’t just a concern for individuals, it is also a risk for organizations. More and more people of working age are getting cancer, and it is high time that employers step… [Read More]
Home Straight
Posted: 19th March 2024
WWC regular contributor, Harmer Parr, has previously updated us about his advanced cancer, Melvyn the Melanoma. Harmer is now, as he puts it, on the ‘home straight’ having been discharged from the hospital and having further treatment, and now in the hands of his hospice team and excellent GP.
Cancer Survival – Why Staying Positive is Never Enough
Posted: 24th October 2023
Stephen Bevan, Principal Associate at the Institute of Employment Studies and an Ambassador for Working With Cancer, offers an insight into his quest to stay upbeat for those around him since his terminal cancer diagnosis.
Aorta: A Good News Story
Posted: 24th October 2023
WWC regular contributor, Harmer Parr, has previously updated us about Melvyn the Melanoma, but in this article he shares the story of a new ‘private assassin’ – his aorta. Don’t know what that is and what it does? Read on.
Anxiety and returning to work
Posted: 1st August 2023
In this article our Associate Genevie Isaacson, an Employment Lawyer, offers some good practice guidelines for employers to support their employees in making a successful return to work.