Getting Started Is Easy — Here’s How It Works

My Cancer Circle is a service to support caregivers and people facing cancer. It helps to:

• Coordinate volunteer activities, including meals, transportation to medical appointments and other tasks
• Provide a private space where community Members can offer words of support and encouragement. You can also post updates and information about your loved one
• Schedule offers to give caregivers a break or to do something special for them

Creating your own personalized My Cancer Circle website is easy. Here’s how it works:

1. Visit the Create a Community page
   In just a few minutes, you, a friend or a family member can fill out a short form with some basic info about your private circle. You may want to assign a Coordinator to create your My Cancer Circle community. The Coordinator enters tasks that you need help with in an online Help Calendar. You can change any Member to a Coordinator and create as many Coordinators as you like to manage different activities.
2. Invite Members who want to help
   Next, the Coordinator will enter the names and email addresses of family and friends you wish to be Members of your circle. Start with people who have expressed interest in helping. You can keep adding names once your community is created.
3. Tell Members it’s a private community
   Members have to be invited to join your circle or request membership. Members receive a “welcome” email message about the community with sign-in information.
4. Enter volunteer tasks
   Go to the “Administration Tab” in your community and begin listing the tasks that need to be done with our easy-to-use templates. This may include things like dinner on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights or rides to medical appointments on Tuesday mornings. Each Member can then volunteer to complete any of the tasks listed.
5. Remind Members of their commitments
   Members are notified by email when new needs are posted. The system sends reminders to volunteers so no one forgets their commitments.
6. Add more information to your community
   Now, you can add photos, create custom sections and add links to resources. Members can post well wishes, share announcements and send messages to you and your family.

Quick Reminders

• Your My Cancer Circle community website is private and secure. Only people you invite or approve can sign in.
• You have the ability to create several Coordinators to manage different activities. For example: meal coordinator, appointment coordinator, communication coordinator or information seeker.
• You can find resources on this site provided directly from CancerCare^® to help support you in your role as a caregiver. Lotsa Helping Hands provides a Member Support Center team that is always ready to help.
• You can shut down your community website at any time.
• If you are using a spam-prevention service, you may need to set it to allow email messages from “system-messages@lotsahelpinghands.com” in order to complete your community setup.