You can have either of these two bookmarks for the RecArea:

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http://www.pinkmutant.com/bclist/

Purpose of the Recreation Area

The Library

This area, like Topsy, just grew. It began with two Reading Rooms: the Barb Pender Reading Room, which contains a collection of posts and articles on different topics of general interest to bc patients, and the Sue Hunter Reading Room, a varied collection of things of special interest to BC List members. Two pages of web site links were added, as well a section of biographical stories, longer versions of signature files. Then came the ever popular Member Locations list, giving the geographical position of List members. There is also a Memorial List with the names of those we have lost to this terrible disease.

The Scrapbook

But then there were all the pictures that began to accumulate. What to do with them? So a Scrapbook was added to the Library, with pictures from List gatherings big and small, and all sizes in between. And when the DISH group formed, where else would they appear, except in the RecArea? But there were still more pictures, of List Hunks and Australians, and just List folk in general. So the Scrapbook spun off from the Library, rather like Frasier spinning off from Cheers, and is now perhaps the most popular part of the Recreation Area.

History of the Recreation Area

Once upon a time the BC List had a virtual Bowling Team. Lots of people joined, taking various improbable jobs and positions. It was a lot of fun. After seeing a number of unhappy posts from the newly diagnosed appear on the list, I got to thinking that it would be helpful if there were a site where our newbies could go and read the "sig files" of older hands on the list. They would be able to see that a BC diagnosis is not an immediate death sentence, that some people remain cancer free for many years, perhaps permanently, that some people may have mets but treatment keeps them able to continue with their lives for years, and some people are getting dramatic benefits from new treatments. They would find people with a diagnosis and/or treatment similar to themselves, real people whose posts they read, and, if I included pictures, whose faces they could see. This would, I hoped, give them a morale boost, they would find out there is hope and that they are not alone. With the old virtual Bowling Team mind I decided to construct a Virtual Recreation Area for the BC List. This is it.