FEARS that cancer patients are at risk from bogus cures has prompted a charity to appoint its first ever digital nurse to combat “fake news” online. The Glasgow-based specialist has been appointed by Macmillan Cancer Support over worries that patients are turning to unverified websites for information which scares them and leaves them susceptible to false claims such as that chemotherapy is a bigger killer than the disease or that baking soda can cure breast cancer.
Research carried out by the charity found that after looking up information about their disease online around 3450 people in Scotland with cancer thought it would kill them.
Macmillan says it is concerned that some patients are looking online because they are leaving appointments without the information they need.
In June, the first ever Cancer Patient Experience Survey in Scotland revealed that a quarter of patients did not fully understand the explanation of what was wrong with them.
Previous Macmillan research also revealed that one in three people in the UK said they were in a daze and couldn’t take anything in when they were diagnosed.
The charity wants health professionals to make sure patients fully understand their illness and direct them to reputable sources of information online.
To tackle the issue, Macmillan has appointed Ellen McPake as its new digital nurse specialist. She will be solely dedicated to answering questions from people affected by cancer online, on Macmillan’s social media platforms and the charity’s online community.
“I’m there to make sure people affected by cancer have a real person they can turn to online for information about their symptoms, cancer diagnosis and treatment,” she said.
The appointment comes after research conducted by YouGov, on behalf of Macmillan, found that more than a third (37 per cent) of people in Scotland with cancer looked up information about their diagnosis online.
Of those, one in ten said they went online because they didn’t fully understand what they’d been told about their cancer.
Macmillan’s head in Scotland, Janice Preston said: “It’s understandable that people go online to look up their diagnosis, but it’s vital they get information from reliable sources.
“The web is full of unverified statistics, fake news and horror stories that can cause people unnecessary worry and distres
Headteacher Kay Robertson, 51, used the internet extensively to find information about her illness after being diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer in March 2014 and when it returned in May 2016.
The mum-of-two, from Crieff, who is now fully recovered, said: “I googled everything, all the way through my cancer. I was lucky that I had a fantastic consultant and a Macmillan nurse ... but there was always something I needed to look up.
“There is so much false information out there. I was careful to only look at websites I knew I could trust like Macmillan or the NHS.”
In September, she found that even accurate information can cause worry when she was diagnosed with sepsis.
‘‘I didn’t really know anything about it,’’ she said. “I was in hospital and asked my husband to google it. The first thing he found was that it was a life-threatening condition. It’s too easy to go online and find the worst case scenario.”
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