Gina Copson: "If CanTeen can't be there for us, then we're going to be there for each other."

Teenage cancer patients are pledging to strike out on their own and support each other, filling the void left by a struggling national charity. .

CanTeen NZ, which provides guidance to young people affected by cancer, has closed more than half its offices – including in Manawatū and Taranaki – in a cost-cutting restructure as it struggles to stay afloat.

The bulk of regional support will be provided by online counselling and forums via CanTeen Australia.

Gina Copson, 23, who found support through CanTeen vital to her cancer struggle, said the closures were extremely disappointing and upsetting.

READ MORE:

* Manawatū CanTeen branch to close in cancer charity's national restructure

* Youth cancer charity calls on Australian counsellors after 17 local jobs cut

* CanTeen's Taranaki branch to close down by the end of the week

* Teens with cancer worse off in New Zealand than internationally

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF Gina Copson has found CanTeen's support vital to her cancer journey. She's adamant it can't be replaced by an online based out of Australia.

She and the other Manawatū members plan to start their own support group, so they won't lose the community that's grown from the service.

"For us, the online support feels like a joke. It's the human connection, and face-to-face support that's important to us ... so if CanTeen can't be there for us, then we're going to be there for each other."

Copson is clear of cancer now – she went into remission in June last year – but she is still recovering physically and mentally.

"It's a big thing. Going through an experience like that changes your outlook on life, and as a younger person that's even more true."

Copson considers her cancer diagnosis a defining moment in her life. She's still trying to figure out who she is now, and in-person support is crucial to that.

"Everyone has their own personal journey that they go on. But coming back together, regrouping and reinforcing each other, that helps you find your [sense of] identity again."

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Kate Fisher says the Taranaki and Palmerston North branches of CanTeen helped her immensely growing up.

The restructure has been a double blow for Kate Fisher.

The 20-year-old Massey University student used the Manawatū branch while studying in Palmerston North, and the Taranaki branch when she was home in New Plymouth.

She said CanTeen didn't just support cancer patients. It helped their siblings and, for the past two years, their children.

Fisher's older sister, Emma, was diagnosed with cancer when she was 6 – and she has been in remission for nearly 14 years.

But the treatments, the fear and hope, the remissions and relapses, all take a massive toll on survivors and their family. Even when the cancer is gone, the aftermath lasts a lifetime, and CanTeen's support helped them both learn to live with that, she said.

"I can honestly say, I have no idea what type of person I'd be like without [CanTeen]. It's incredibly sad that in the future other young people living with cancer will not get the support we did."

Fisher said it was great CanTeen was maintaining a presence in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, but young people in the regions would be left to go it alone.

"There's a lot of support and help in hospital, but not so much when they come home ... That's what they need, because they're coming back to normal life."

Ordinary friends tend to know what's going on and want to help, but they don't necessarily know how and when to talk about it.

This could be really awkward, Fisher said.

The communities that grew around each CanTeen branch were a safe place to practise being normal again, without having to explain anything, she said.

"Cancer doesn't care about money, race, or religion. So we are all so different. [But] even if we weren't talking about it, which we mostly didn't, it made us close."