BC Cancer Agency launches www.cancerinmyfamily.ca

Vancouver, B.C. – Coping with cancer is hard enough when you’re an adult. It can be even more scary when you’re a child and your mom, dad, or grandparent gets sick.

To help families cope, the BC Cancer Agency, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority, has created a new website called Cancer in my Family (www.cancerinmyfamily.ca), aimed at children aged 8 to 12.

The website is a fun interactive environment where children can feel safe, play games, create friendly characters – and at the same time explore how they’re feeling, and learn about cancer.

“It’s an opportunity for children to explore in an interactive way their thoughts, feelings and questions about cancer,” explains Carly Fleming, a clinical counsellor at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver. “Kids process things through fun, art and play, so it will help them on that level.”

Breast cancer survivor and mother Deanna Van Der Burg, 46, of Surrey, says: “It’s hard to see a parent sick. It affects our children a lot more than you think, whether they talk about it or not.”

Deanna initially struggled to find ways of helping her seven year-old son Ben to understand what was happening and to answer his many questions. “A lot of the time I didn’t have answers for him. When you’re first diagnosed with cancer, you’re like a deer in headlights. The only person Ben had heard of with cancer was Terry Fox, who didn’t survive. Explaining that there are lots of different types of cancer was tough, too.”

There weren’t a lot of resources for children available online, and Deanna didn’t know anyone who’d survived breast cancer. When she was able to access BC Cancer Agency support groups and meet some survivors, Deanna gained some hope, which helped her to reassure Ben. “He was acting out a lot at one point, but now whenever we pass a poster about cancer he stops in his tracks and points it out to me.”

Deanna and Ben were able to attend the Children’s Group offered by BC Cancer Agency’s Fraser Valley Centre in Surrey (also offered at the Agency’s Vancouver Centre). It was a very positive experience, but not one that’s easily accessible to every family in B.C. The website will offer the same kind of help, but will be available to everyone, whenever and wherever they need it most.

The site includes a choice of fun games that emphasize supportive messages such as: “You can’t catch cancer from someone else”; and “It’s OK to have fun, even when someone you love is sick”. Children can draw pictures on a virtual rock wall, which includes a feature showing the difference between a healthy cell and a cancer cell. Bouncing fruit and veggies, caught in a virtual basket, teaches children about the importance of a healthy diet. They can go on a scavenger hunt for a “feel-good” bag, create cute characters to be their buddies, and set the weather to reflect their mood.

Deanna thinks the site will be great for kids like Ben: “It’s good to know that now I’ve got a resource for him. He loves computers – he has better mouse control than I have! It will be interesting to see how he navigates it while sitting on Mummy’s lap, and how differently he’ll navigate it when he’s on his own.”

Envision Credit Union Charitable Foundation provided a generous donation to the BC Cancer Foundation to start up the website. “This was a dream we’d held for some time, to do more to help children understand cancer in their family and cope with changes,” says Patient and Family Counselling program leader Gina MacKenzie. “It was wonderful to know that Envision was also excited and willing to provide a significant donation. Without it, the website wouldn’t have been possible.”

The BC Cancer Agency, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority, is committed to reducing the incidence of cancer, reducing the mortality from cancer, and improving the quality of life of those living with cancer. It provides a comprehensive cancer control program for the people of British Columbia by working with community partners to deliver a range of oncology services, including prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment, research, education, supportive care, rehabilitation and palliative care. The BC Cancer Foundation raises funds to support research and enhancements to patient care at the BC Cancer Agency throughout B.C.

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Contact:

Ruth Hartnup
Web Communications Specialist
BC Cancer Agency
Tel: 604.877.6000 x 2326
rhartnup@bccancer.bc.ca

or

Jinny Wu
Communications Specialist
BC Cancer Agency
Tel: 604.877.6272
Pgr: 604.806.2338
jwu2@bccancer.bc.ca