Steph Hall is a senior children’s cancer nurse at Leeds Children’s Hospital (LCH). She tells us what life looked like on a children’s cancer ward before COVID, what it’s looked like during the pandemic, and what it’s looking like now.
Helen Ball’s daughter Emily has recently finished treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Helen tells us about what life has looked like for her family since Emily’s diagnosis, and how nature and the outdoors has helped them.
Chloe Hunt was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2010. She describes the challenges she faced adapting to a ‘new normal’ both during and after treatment, and how she overcame them.
Catrin Bayliss is a health play specialist at Cardiff and Vale UHB.
Dr Ed Cheeseman, Consultant Paediatric Pathologist and Chair of CCLG’s Biological Studies Steering Group, explains the difference between ‘normal’ cells and cancer cells, how the latter develop, and what they do to the body.
Valerie Tomlin is a children’s cancer nurse at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
The Little Princess Trust has announced the recipients of its innovation research grants, awarded in partnership with CCLG.
Going back to school can be scary for both you and your child, but it’s important for their mental wellbeing. It helps them to feel ‘normal’ and lessens the isolation and loneliness which many children with cancer face. It gives structure to their day, a focus on the future and is where they can learn and develop social skills and make friends.
Leukaemia, lockdown and learning… Vicky Newman, whose daughter Alexandra has leukaemia, writes on how lockdown actually helped to reduce gaps in Alex’s education and the isolation she had felt previously when away from school.
