3 February 2019

There is a room full of people – different ages, different backgrounds, different looks. There is laughter, there are tears, there is friendship and understanding. It could be a family gathering, a meeting of friends, a reunion?! No, it is a blogger workshop and some of these people I have never met in my life, have never heard of them and yet, there is this silent understanding, as we have one main thing in common – we all have or had cancer and know exactly what it is like. #nomorewordsneeded

The cancer bloggers also have other things in common (apart from cancer, obviously), as we are rather the communicative type, when it comes to our disease and our life with it, we want to inform, lift tabus, encourage (mainly others, but also ourselves) and like to connect – with other patients or people, fellow bloggers, charities, cancer organizations and groups and last, but not least, the industry.

Janssen Oncology invited a few of us to a blogger workshop, having realized a long time ago, how important the exchange with patients is, they called for a first blogger workshop last year. We all connected, stayed in contact and agreed that we have to repeat it again, as time flew by… and this is what happened Saturday – the Blogger Workshop 2.0.

The Düsseldorf location is equally cool – Sturmfreie Bude – and there are some faces from last year. It is that – the connection we all feel, whether we knew each other already or not.

Not only some bloggers are familiar, but the oncological psychologist, the photographer and the team from Janssen. The agency, who arranged it all again, was the same, but the faces were new – not making any difference in the seamlessly wonderful preparation of this event with a lot of attention to detail. One face was the same though – Kathe, who visually captured the highlights of our workshop.

Maybe due to the connections and the exchange amongst all of us, the time is too short… we listened to an amazing talks about cancer research including patients #VictoriesOverCancer, technical and legal knowledge concerning blogs and have an interesting session with the psycho oncologist. We all rushed last minute to our transfers, as we just do not want to depart.

The 24 hours were amazing and we want to connect more, continue to exchange and work together. I cannot wait for any projects and the Blogger Workshop 3.0! Thank you Janssen! I just love how the industry works more and more with the patients at eye level.

This year’s participants:

Conny from „Grosse Klappe, Krebs dahinter – ohne Gesundheit ist alles nichts“ – Instagram & Facebook

Don from „Schockdiagnose Krebs“ – Instagram & Facebook

Sabrina from „Always keep fighting“ – Instagram & Facebook

Mary from „Mary’s Blog – Mein Leben mit und nach Brustkrebs“ – Blog, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Susanna the „Krebskriegerin“ – Facebook

Sue from „Su-mmerfield – Diagnose Leben“ – Blog

Jenny from „It looks like Jenny“- Instagram

Last year’s participants, who were ‚virtually‘ connected:

Diana from „Krabbamein – der Krebs und ich“ – Insta & Facebook

Benni from „Cancelling Cancer – kein Weg zu weit“ – Blog, Instagram & Facebook

Alex the „Leukofighter“ – Blog, Instagram & Facebook

Marvin from „Fuck Cancer – das Leben mit Krebs und der Kampf“ – Facebook

Nessa from „Auf einmal war er da – Dottersacktumor“ – Facebook

What a pity that Dilek from „Leben 2.0“ (Facebook, Instagram) and Nicole the „Prinzessin uffm Bersch“ (Blog, Facebook, Instagram) could not make it….