The aim of this study was to explore how cancer patients with progressive disease perceived and experienced supportive care at the different stages of their cancer journey and to compare this to the perceptions of health care professionals. It was a single centre study using qualitative data obtained from two focus group interviews in an independent centre for specialist palliative care. Eight patients attending the centre were interviewed in two focus groups to ascertain their views on the supportive care that they had experienced during the course of their illness, focusing on: time of diagnosis, acute treatment phase and palliative care phase. Themes that emerged from the analysis of the interview transcripts using the QSR NUD*IST (version 4) software package included the following: manner in which diagnosis was revealed, information made available to family and friends, patients' acceptance of cancer; service provision such as a named contact person, choices in treatment and care, problems of limited resources; feelings of being unsupported, and ways in which supportive care could be improved.