WITNESS - Virtual friends in a cancer world

By Janet Guttsman

TORONTO (Reuters) - "Forgive me a freakout moment here," I wrote to a woman's-only Internet bicycling forum I've been posting on for years. "I have to see a specialist for something that they suspect is very early breast cancer."

It was my real friends who accompanied me to the medical appointments after that initial shock, and held my hand when I emerged from general anaesthetic and surgery.

But in a world of instant Internet communications, a group of women I have never met provided a second level of support as I faced up to the diagnosis you never want to get.

The first replies to my post came within minutes, both from women with stories of their own and from those offering sympathy and emoticon hugs.

I don't know their real names, and they don't know mine, yet over the next weeks and months this virtual support network kept prodding me for news, and reminding me that they were rooting for me at every step of the way.

"I've read that good quality chocolate has cancer-fighting properties," one woman wrote with a big smiley face of encouragement.

"Hmmm, funny, I was working away when something told me to check the Women's Forum," another virtual friend replied. "Aaah, yes. Someone said, 'chocolate'."

Christina Koenig, head of media relations for the web-based support group Breast Cancer Network of Strength said Internet resources could be a tremendous comfort to women facing scary diagnoses like mine.