AAt first glance, the Yes!App appears to be a completely normal social network. But the discussions, posts, and profiles are too considered and overly appreciative for a regular social media app. This is about more than the outfit of the day, the late train journey and cat videos. This is about cancer. A disease that affects more and more of us, the older we get and the better the diagnoses are. Only from cardiovascular diseases do more people die in this country. Every second person suffers from cancer at least once in their life.
It is therefore only natural what the non-profit company Yeswecan!cer has created with this app. It brought the self-help groups, which are so important for destigmatizing the disease, onto the Internet – and thus made them accessible to every patient and all their relatives. In the Yes!App, no one will complain that it’s always about illness – that’s their purpose.
Digital perseverance slogans
The patients and relatives can also exchange information about the smallest details of the treatments, sometimes with the participation of experts. When the side effects become unbearable, other users send perseverance slogans: “Please don’t just stop taking the pills!”
The 43-year-old Funda, whose cancer has spread beyond cure, gets help here with all the bureaucracy that comes with applying for a pension. Laura, whose mother was diagnosed with bladder cancer three years ago, is asking for “every little idea” on how she can help. Just holding hands and drying tears isn’t enough. Other users write of fixed meal plans, homemade juices and that sometimes less is rich than you think. Your messages will end with a shamrock emoji and a “Happy Birthday” greeting.
The goal: to talk more openly about cancer
Alexander Wünsch, who heads psycho-oncology at the University Hospital in Bern, calls the app “special”. Because it offers so much that can help patients: chats and groups, podcasts, expert information. Wünsch and his colleague Natalie Röderer from Freiburg are also working on an app. It is supposed to have similar functions to the Yes!App, but will come from the cancer advice centers and not from self-help, as is the case with the Yes!App. Jörg A. Hoppe founded the company behind the Yes!App in 2018; the music manager had been diagnosed with leukemia two years earlier. That’s why he wanted to help people talk about cancer more openly.
In fact, the conversation is a “very, very powerful strategy,” says Wünsch, especially when it comes to fear. All cancer patients suffer from fears – regardless of whether it is the fear of treatment, of even more suffering or of recurrence. A number of studies have shown that the disease affects 30 to 40 percent of those affected so much that they develop depression or another mental disorder.
Even online self-help has its limits
“What helps me a bit with fear,” writes Claudia (39 years old, diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019) in a Yes!App group: “Give her a form (for me she is a fearful but cute green alien) and introduce yourself , fear sits across from you and speaks to you. Then you send them away again.” Alexander Wünsch thinks that’s a good thing and is happy when he hears about the idea of the alien.
But online self-help also has its limits. In the exchange about death, they become clear. “The fear of dying is one of the most difficult topics of all,” says Wünsch. Few patients dared to talk about it. Sabine (58 years old, diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021) writes in a breast cancer group: “Oh, I’m getting more and more scared, day by day. I have metastases in the lungs and bones. Do you have experience with this? How long can you live with that?” Antje and Katrin answer, but they write, they don’t talk or think about dying. It’s easier to live like this.
Encouraging posts like one from Karin (almost half of her tongue had to be removed because of oral cavity cancer) received more reactions. The 46-year-old shows a picture of her return to the office: balloons are floating in front of gray desk chairs, confetti is everywhere. “I was so happy that day,” she writes.