I work as a consultant physician at Pakistan’s largest tertiary care cancer hospital network where we focus on providing holistic care to our patients. We have a Hospital Schooling Programme at Shaukat Khanum for our paediatric cancer patients that formally started around 2015 and more than 700 students have graduated since then.

The idea for this programme originated from a personal experience when my nephew was undergoing treatment for blood cancer. He was very worried about missing out school and getting behind in class. We spoke to his school principal who was very encouraging and eventually, he managed to stay at par with his classmates. This made me think of other children in a similar situation, undergoing treatment at our hospital.

For kids already in school, we started writing letters to their school principals, asking about course work, and we began helping our paediatric patients cover that work during treatment. This encouraged young patients and their parents about a future beyond cancer and gave hope that they will get better and return to school. For other children who never went to school, we developed a workbook with the help of private school teachers. Completing this workbook would help children learn English, Urdu, and Math at class 1 level.

Along with education, we also offer play therapy to our admitted paediatric patients. Distraction activities that help children focus on constructive work, diverting their attention away from their illness, can support in developing a positive response to treatment.