How to Join or Support CISS (ciss.org.au), and What Members Receive

CISS (Cancer Information & Support Society) offers individual and corporate membership, and it also accepts donations and bequests. According to its own site, detailed information is provided only to members, while the organisation says it is independent and survives on membership fees, donations and bequests. If you want the full, detailed information and ongoing support, membership is the route described; if you only want to sustain the service, donating is the other option mentioned.

What CISS says members receive

From the site's own description, membership (individual or corporate) is what unlocks:

• Detailed, comprehensive information on cancer therapies — described as unbiased and evidence based.
• Ongoing support for the treatment program a person chooses.
• Extra skills intended to help members carry out that program.
• Personal support delivered in person, by phone, or by email.

The site frames this around a specific philosophy: that cancer is a systemic disease, that emotional factors play a significant part in its cause, and that treatment should address body, mind, emotions and spirit. It also states that people with cancer get the best results when they take responsibility for their treatment choices and believe in them.

Membership types

The site does not publish membership pricing, tier differences, or a sign-up form in the material available here, so those specifics would need to be confirmed directly with CISS.

How the organisation is funded

CISS states it is not influenced or funded by any government or private organisation with vested interests. It says it survives on:

• Membership fees
• Donations
• Bequests from people it has helped
• Unconditional corporate philanthropy

This matters for how you read its material: the funding model is presented as the basis for its claim of independence, and it is also the reason detailed information is gated behind membership rather than given away.

Joining or supporting: what to do

1. Decide which role fits you — member (to receive the detailed therapy information and ongoing support) or donor (to fund the service without necessarily using it).
2. Go to ciss.org.au and look for the membership or donation path. The site's own text invites visitors to "join us and receive this detailed comprehensive unbiased, evidence based information on cancer therapies and ongoing support or donate to enable us to provide these services."
3. Expect to make contact — because personal support is offered in person, by phone or by email, and because pricing is not published in the available material, the practical next step is to reach out through the site's contact route and ask what membership costs and what the current process is.
4. If donating, confirm with CISS how donations are handled and whether bequests are something you want to arrange.

What CISS says about evidence and conventional treatment

Two positions on the site are worth knowing before you join, because they shape the information you would receive:

• "First Do No Harm" — most conventional cancer therapies are described as invasive, some with potential for serious harm, and in CISS's view they should be used only in immediately life-threatening situations and where there is proven evidence they do more good than harm.
• "Evidence Based" — CISS argues treatments should rest on trial results showing the intervention does more good than harm, and cites a Cochrane analysis of mammography for breast cancer screening that it says concluded the screening leads to treatments doing more harm than good.

The site also carries a disclaimer: you should always consult a medical practitioner or specialist familiar with both conventional and alternative cancer therapies, and who practises evidence-based medicine generally or informed choice in particular, when considering relevant cancer therapies. It notes that opinions expressed on the website are those of the article authors.

Practical points before you commit

• Detailed information is member-only. If you want the substance rather than the summary, membership is the stated requirement.
• Pricing and sign-up mechanics are not in the available material. Treat cost and process as things to verify with CISS directly rather than assume.
• The philosophy is explicit and non-neutral. CISS is openly sceptical of most conventional cancer therapies and centres emotional and systemic factors. If that framing does not match what you want, that is a reason to look elsewhere; if it does, membership is designed around it.
• Support is personal and ongoing, not a one-off document — the site describes in-person, phone and email support as part of what members get.