It's been a privilege

Indulge me for a moment. Imagine Connie, a 44-year-old woman, who works part time as an office clerk and is married to a London taxi driver. They have two young children. Today Connie will be diagnosed with bowel cancer.

One in ten patients in England does not have access to a clinical nurse specialist to accompany them on their cancer journey. Connie will. Over the weeks ahead he will work with her and her family to provide personalised and compassionate care, informed by evidence. He will be honest; he will look Connie in the eye.

Since I began editing Cancer Nursing Practice in 2009, I’ve asked myself the Connie question many times. Will this article help my readers look Connie in the eye? Will it encourage and support cancer nurses to provide the best care possible for every Connie they meet, whether at diagnosis, during and after treatment, or at the end of life?

Thank you

No editor is an island, though, and so I’d like to thank you all as subscribers, authors and reviewers for helping me try to achieve those aims in what I’m well aware are increasingly challenging circumstances.

I will be stepping down as editor of Cancer Nursing Practice this month. It has been an honour and a privilege to meet, work with and learn from you as cancer nurses, your colleagues and patients, over the past eight years. Together, we have created a journal of which we can be proud.

Special thanks go to consultant editor Dr Carole Farrell, who began this journey with me and to long-standing and newer members of the editorial advisory board.

I wish the new editor, Jennifer Sprinks, every success as she takes the journal into a new era. Until Jennifer returns from maternity leave in the spring, Gary Paragpuri will be acting editor. Welcome.