As the leader of a survivor-led cancer advocacy organisation and from direct personal experience, Ashleigh will discuss the benefits via online international connections (websites, facebook, twitter, blogs) that are especially valuable for rare and stigmatised cancer where local support isn't available. Leadership, inspiration and exchange of ideas are all vital for progress – and networks of like-minded people are needed with the skills and capacity to maintain this. Survivorship networked connections can provide leading-edge treatment advice that comes from all over the world. Survivors sometimes inform clinicians about the latest research and what is happening elsewhere. Survivors can inform survivorship in many ways, including encouraging and mentoring other survivors to take action, informing researchers and research, in clinician teaching, by identifying ‘the gaps’ and also by guiding development of survivorship care. All survivors can contribute, but sometimes it needs imagination, confidence and effort to find constructive ways to do this.