Patient advisory board

• Member of TREFFPUNKT Marburg
• Born 1994
• Student

“After my illness in 2014, I found it particularly difficult to deal with my body and my health. It felt like a betrayal of my own body against myself, and resulted in cancer-induced PTSD. I would like to bring more attention to mental health during and after physical recovery. The exchange in my meeting place has done me good to actively engage with myself on a regular basis, a reality that takes place outside of my therapy. Since, in my opinion, mental health is neglected during or after cancer, I would like to focus on this as part of my voluntary work on the Patient Advisory Board.”

• Member of TREFFPUNKT Berlin
• Born 1992
• Doctor

“As a young patient with metastatic thyroid cancer, I quickly became aware of the meeting points and the work of the foundation. Young cancer patients are underrepresented in the public eye, so the Foundation’s mission is incredibly important to change this. As a junior doctor in a Berlin skin tumor center, I also have a lot to do with cancer patients in my job, and it is very important to me to contribute to improving care here. I have already benefited from the foundation myself during my egg cryopreservation and would now like to be involved in future projects. I have already been able to support the foundation in two public interviews and am now looking forward to helping shape the content of the advisory board.”

• Member of TREFFPUNKT Vogtland
• Born in 1983
• Geriatric nurse on sick leave

“Due to my own breast cancer during pregnancy, I kept coming up against limits because this topic is so little known and publicized. Thanks to the foundation, I was also able to talk to other people affected and clear up some uncertainties. Since 2020, I have repeatedly come up against limits in relation to the illness. Be it on the subject of parental leave during the illness, many official hurdles and, last but not least, the way back to work. Through a lot of my own research, I have also found so-called gaps for our particular case and would like to pass on my knowledge to others affected. So much needs to change politically and socially so that young patients also have other options in the future on their journey with cancer and afterwards.”

• Member of TREFFPUNKT Berlin until spring 2023, new member of TREFFPUNKT Hamburg
• Born 1989
• Filmmaker

“My cancer diagnosis in 2019 marked the beginning of an odyssey with the authorities and doctors. Undergoing radiation and chemo, good advice was often even harder to find. I’m on the Patient Advisory Board to make it easier for other people affected to find help.”

• TREFFPUNKT Hamburg
• Born 1986
• Digital Designer UX and Product Owner

“I experienced how much effort it takes to clarify repetitive questions, to find the right contact points, to fill out applications, to deal with financial and health problems. I also had to deal with stress in my private and social environment. Although we have a worldwide Cancer Day (February 4) and the media is always talking about cancer, such as current celebrity cancer patients King Charles III, Princess Kate, but also Hugh Jackman and presenter Miriam Pielhau, it is something else to be affected by it yourself – or to experience it in your social environment. For me as a single person living alone, sharing experiences with other people affected at the same stage of life as “young adults” (from studying to being young parents) has been even more helpful than for each individual anyway. As a foundation, we can continue to help clarify open questions about applications, contact points, sports, finances, restrictions or therapies more quickly, but above all offer ourselves and other initiatives as a social contact point. We can also act as a mediator for the private and professional social environment – to learn how to deal with the disease together. After all, in addition to good doctors and medication, it is precisely social support that contributes to a speedy recovery.”