Hi and welcome to riprap

This site is developed especially for teenagers who have a parent with cancer. In riprap, you can learn more about cancer and its treatment and through individual stories you can see how this might affect you and your family.

For some of you it may be most important to make contact and share experiences with other teenagers in the same situation. Because we are concerned about the safety risks of chat rooms on the internet, we have decided not to offer this feature. However, we recommend that you have a look at the stories on the site to find out what other young people in similar situations are going through. You can also support each other by using the discussion forum in the 'Support' section.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions that are not answered by the information on the site.  You can also get in touch if you would like any advice or emotional support in relation to what you are going through at the moment.  

Riprap is developed by a team based at the University of Sheffield, UK - within the Academic Unit of Supportive Care, the Department of Oncology.

We are very grateful to the New Opportunities Fund for funding the initial website development under their 'Living with Cancer' initiative.  The website was first launched in 2003. We are also very grateful for the subsequent funding from the Department of Health that enabled us to upgrade the website in 2012.  

As the site is developed in the UK, we have included a directory of services nationally - called 'support in my area' - so that you can find out where to go if you want to talk to someone face-to-face near to where you live.

You may wonder why we have called the site 'riprap'. The word 'riprap' means loose stones placed into a stream, onto which a firm foundation can be built. We hope that this site can be one of your building blocks at a time when many things may seem uncertain and at a loose end.

We want to make this site as helpful as possible. Please visit the feedback section (link from the bottom of the web pages) and let us know what you think so that we can continue to improve it.