Sallie, Australia

Childhood cancer isn’t often spoken about. My son was first diagnosed in preschool. He did over 2 years of treatment and 14 months later, he relapsed. This time he needed more chemo, more radiation and a bone marrow transplant. Watching him go through the horrific side effects is truly heartbreaking. The hardest part so far, aside from watching him writhe around in pain for hours on end, and feeling completely helpless, was coming home and trying to heal from the trauma we’ve both suffered. There needs to be more practical supports post-hospitalisation. The long-term side effects of childhood cancer are horrible! We need more research and funding for childhood cancer- it should be 50/50 but sadly it’s lucky to be more than 5% for kids! Thank you for this platform. People need to be able to share their experiences and world cancer day is a great time to share our experiences and hopefully make things better for the next families who are diagnosed.