Cancer Hub
Visit cancerhub.org.au, or call 1800 945 215 today, to get the practical and emotional support your family needs to cope with cancer.
That’s why Camp Quality has joined forces with national youth cancer charity Canteen to expand services for parents and carers.
The Child and Youth Cancer Alliance, a partnership between the two charities, has launched the Parenting Through Cancer website. This provides a safe online space where parents of children, teens and young adults, aged up to 25 years, can access free professional telephone counselling and online support.
Through the platform, parents can connect with others experiencing the challenges of cancer in the family via discussions and private messaging. It is also the place to find relevant and trustworthy information to help parents navigate this difficult time.
The Parenting Through Cancer community ensures that, no matter what the cancer experience, there is support available for parents and their families for as long as they need it.
Simply visit parentingthroughcancer.org.au, or, to access the free telephone counselling directly, call 1800 945 215.
Access free professional telephone counselling and online support.
Visit Parenting Through CancerKerry-Anne (00:02:01 – 00:09:15): After a run. One day I was in the shower and just felt a lump in my left breast and just immediately knew it was something.
Caption (00:00:11): Kerry-Anne was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Harry (00:15:17 – 00:25:14): At first I didn’t know what to think because I didn’t really know what was going on with my mum.
Alfie (00:26:08 – 00:34:14): I was just so sad. I… the emotions really built up. What’s going to happen to her? Will we ever see her again?
Harry (00:35:08 – 00:43:09): Sometimes, my mom wasn’t home when I got home. And I was a bit scared that she wouldn’t come home.
Alfie (00:44:22 – 00:46:21): I was devastated. Yeah.
Kerry-Anne (00:47:21 – 01:04:16): During that time it was pretty tough because we’d come back from overseas with no vehicle. So we had to walk to train stations and then from train stations to the hospital and say the two boys had to basically come along with me everywhere I went. My two and I have been on our own for most of their life.
Kerry-Anne (01:05:12 – 01:12:09): So the thought that this could possibly lead to them losing mum was something that they really struggled with.
Alfie (01:14:18 – 01:19:05): She was never there. She always was at the hospital.
Kerry-Anne (01:21:19 – 01:41:07): But the biggest nightmare that I have is that my kids had nowhere to go. Now I want them to continue to play sport. I want them to continue at this school that they go to. I want them to continue to have access to, you know, camping holidays. And I also want them to continue to have access to someone that loves them.
Caption (01:43): To better support families impacted by cancer, Camp Quality and Canteen have joined forces to form the Child and Youth Cancer Alliance.
Caption (01:47): Our first joint project is the Parenting Through Cancer community.
Kerry-Anne (01:51:00 – 02:18:09): So the Parenting Through cancer platform has three main areas. There’s the professional counseling hotline that you can use to sort of contact someone with built professional understanding of what you’re going through. Having someone at the end of the phone that will actually be able to understand some of the complexities of what’s happening in your life and coming up with a strategy or a plan for you to be able to cope with it in that moment. And hopefully moving forward as well.
Kerry-Anne (02:18:09 – 02:44:14): There’s free resources that you can use to help inform you and sort of guide your thinking as to what happens next. And the most useful part is having someone that’s been through the same experiences as you to sort of talk to you, just express how you’re feeling that day. You know, what can I do to help you?
Kerry-Anne (02:44:15 – 03:12:12): What can you do to help me? And you know, how do we sort of make this journey a little bit easier for all of us? Have those open conversations with people about what to expect It’s exhausting mentally to try and be the mother that you were before cancer for the kids during cancer. It’s it’s very difficult to sustain that because, you know, you want to you want to keep the kids life normal.
Kerry-Anne (03:13:00 – 03:23:14): You don’t want them to feel more effects of what’s happening to you. You work harder to try and make sure they’re okay and that they’re getting to things and they’re getting things that they need.
Parenting Through Cancer is the first project of the Child and Youth Cancer Alliance, from the new partnership between Camp Quality and Canteen. By coming together, the Alliance aims to expand essential services to better meet the needs of Australian families impacted by cancer and make the most of our combined resources and donated funds.