Help for parents of children with cancer

PARENTS of children with cancer are to form a support network aimed at helping families deal with the ordeal.

Eleven families who have been meeting on days out with their children and offering mutual support on an informal basis are to set up a dedicated organisation to extend a helping hand to parents countrywide.

The families announced their intention at a special day of activities to mark International Childhood Cancer Day at the Barretstown Gang Camp centre for ill children in Co Kildare.

Celebration and cancer rarely sit side by side, but at the unique centre set up by veteran actor Paul Newman, youngsters from around the country came together to celebrate their own strength in battling the disease.

A programme of events was drawn with the aim of injecting some fun into what has been a tough and trying time for them.

International Childhood Cancer Day was marked by 35 countries as a way of highlighting both the strides being made in treating the disease and the deficiencies that still exist in medical and support services.

In Ireland, medical advances mean a 75% success rate in the treatment of the 130 children diagnosed with cancer every year, but other participants in the annual Cancer Day events, such as Russia and Romania, fall far behind and survival chances are much lower.

At Barretstown, the emphasis is on administering a large dose of fun to help boost the spirits of children fighting cancer an aspect of treatment which is gaining growing recognition by doctors who accept that drugs alone provide only part of the weaponry against the disease.

"It's easy to forget what cancer has done to these children. They spend so much time in hospital and in treatment that it can rob them of part of their childhood," said Barretstown camp spokeswoman, Miriam Nolan.

Barretstown staff are to help in setting up the support network, details of which will be unveiled soon.