Stories

Are you feeling lonely or wonder if what you feel or how you react is normal? Have a look at stories submitted by other teenagers and hopefully you'll find something or someone that you can relate to.

It is always hard when someone we love gets cancer, but particularly difficult if your parent is diagnosed when you are at a young age. Young people often feel very lonely as they may not know anyone else their own age who are going through a similar experience. Reading stories from other teenagers in similar situations may help you realise that you are not alone and that what you feel and how you react are completely normal.

The stories on the riprap website are real stories submitted by people who have used and are using the site. The names in the stories are given by those submitting them and is not a result of our wild fantasy in case you find some of them a bit weird. The pictures in the stories are stock images and are not the people in the stories. The stories are organised according to the seven emotions that the website is centred around, which are common emotions that teenagers feel when their parent has cancer. You may find that some of the stories are placed in several of the emotion sections. We have done this because some stories may relate to several different emotions.

Because many of you use the site when things are difficult and you're feeling low, you'll find that stories can often be quite sad and upsetting to read. Don't let this discourage you - there are many happy stories out there that may not be submitted to us because people may not use the site when things are going well. We do have a section for positive stories and welcome more stories in that section as well as in all the others.

We appreciate that everyone's story is different and we hope that you will submit your story to share with other riprap users. Remember also that you can always get in touch with us here at riprap if you want to talk things through more privately.