Kidney Cancer Support Network

The Kidney Cancer Support Network is an informal voluntary organisation that provides advice and support for kidney cancer patients and their carers.  Part of its role is also to help kidney cancer patients get NHS funding for drug and other treatments.

We set up a discussion forum for them using a widely-used Open Source software platform  - phpBB.  This provides the usual features for registered users to engage in conversations and add information or comments under specified topics. Other users can add further comments.

We also modified the software to allow users to add three items to their profile.
1. An indicator that they are willing to give support
2. The first part of their postcode.
3. Their status (Patient, carer etc)

The Support Network Map

To further enhance the value of the network in connecting people, we created a map of the UK which marks the location of each forum user who indicated their willingness to give support to others.

Through these markers people can find people nearby to connect with directly through email, whilst protecting the contact details and locations of supporters from unwanted communications.

This was achieved at a very low cost by creating a custom Google Map using their freely available code and support.

The work was carried out in collaboration with our design partner, Fonda