Mr. Richard Flaherty:

It is at every stage and it depends on the person. The good thing about the story I told is that person was referred by staff at BreastCheck who were aware of our services. We link in very closely with the BreastCheck hospital. That person needed our support at that time. There are people who when they get a cancer diagnosis will go through their treatment and brave it out. They think they can get through it but they have a fear of recurrence. They may come through their cancer but it is the fear of recurrence. They are not able to get their lives back to what they were before the diagnosis and they should be able to. They will access support then. People access support at various stages. We provide support during and after treatment and beyond. People decide themselves when they need it. The most important thing is all the staff and people know we are there, on a drop-in basis, when they want services.

To go back to the point about men, thankfully, society has changed. We opened our centre 15 years ago. There were very few men. We could not even get male volunteers to work in the centre. We have seen a shift in that. We have a men's support group of 17 or 18 men that meets every Friday morning. We would not have got those numbers ten years ago. It has thankfully changed. More men seek help when they need it as they go through their treatment. They are able to talk among themselves as well and provide that mutual support, in addition to the support they get from professionals.

People come at different stages, genders and ages. As I said, it is family members as well. One in four people who use our centre are people who are not directly diagnosed with cancer themselves. They have a brother, sister, mother or father who has cancer and support for them is as important as anything as well.