Grandma… a beautiful book for the little ones in your life. Hopefully making it a little easier to explain and understand that thing called cancer.
Cancer is a journey that no one wishes to travel, but unfortunately many of us do. 1 in 2 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their life time. I was unfortunate to travel the cancer journey with my family in 2017 when my husband was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer, I will be forever thankful that he is in remission.
A cancer diagnosis impacts more then the individual, family including children jump on the emotional ride as well. A journey of the unknown! questions after questions with no answer, fearing of what is to come whilst constantly asking why us? Its hard as an adult and just as hard as a child.
Cancer is a challenging and emotional time for everyone. Questions that need answering and emotions to deal with, fear of what is to come whilst staying strong for loved ones and figuring out how or what to tell the little ones in your family.
When I travelled the cancer journey with my husband we tried to be as open as possible with our children, whilst trying to protect them from what was going on and what was to come. This was not always easy as we wasn’t always sure ourselves. Operations, treatment, recovery.
Its important to remember everyone’s journey is different. We went through operations, a stoma bag and chemotherapy. Treatment was at home which was not always easy but I’m grateful it was possible but it did bring extra questions and sometimes extra work.
Like many we had no idea just how treatment was going to impact my husband we could only assume. It was hard seeing him in pain and discomfort, sleeping so much and unable to take part in family activities due to exhaustion or sensitivity from chemo. He did however have good days and made the most of them.
At the time of the diagnosis the youngest was only 7yrs old. We told him the same time as his older siblings. We had no idea how they would take it but we agreed to be honest with them. On telling them we believed that the youngest did not truly understand what we had said but we could not have been any more wrong.
My children all took the news of their dad in their own way. Expressing their feelings, holding in their thoughts and emotion and followed us around asking us questions about what was happening to their dad.
I believed the youngest had no true understanding of what he had been told. That was until his teacher asked to speak to me at the end of the school day a few weeks later. Being told that my baby boy had broken down in class because his daddy had cancer was heart breaking. This happened a few times, it did not get any easier hearing the words. A hug and some reassuring words seemed to help.
One evening we was sat watching tv when the little one asked us to press rewind. I looked at Roger puzzled as it was just adverts. We did as he asked and he told us to stop and play… it was an advert for Sober October for cancer.. my heart break. This little fella truly understood more of what was going on then we gave him credit for.
During our journey I searched the internet for resources to help children and it was disappointing how little there was. The stuff that was out there was not age appropriate for my little one. How do you talk to a 7 year old about his dad having cancer? Or even an older child that was scared their dad would not be around for Christmas.
Being asked to review this book by Cheryl was an honour… its a book that I will shout out forever. A little book that all little ones should have the opportunity to own. Reading this book then reading it with my youngest made me realise just how much it could have helped me talk to my little one, as well as the older ones. With simple but beautiful pictures and words this book is a must read, from explaining hair loss to feeling weak and having a poor immune system. But also explaining that there will be good days and adventures and fun can still be had.
This book explains in a simple and child friendly way what a cancer journey may look like. It Its detailed, travels the journey with you and so easy to understand. This book would have assisted so much in making it easier to talk to my youngest about their daddy being poorly and what to possibly expect.
A truly stunning and highly recommended book for any child or adult to assist with talking to their little ones.
