The lack of support for young people going through cancer treatment is shockingly absent. The gaps are significant. That’s a story for a different day.
The most common childhood cancers are rhabdomyosarcoma, leukemia, neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, lymphoma (including both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin), retinoblastoma, bone cancer, and brain and spinal cord tumors.
Treatment for childhood cancer often puts individuals at risk for serious health issues later, if they are fortunate to survive their cancer as a child. This group of survivors (19+) desperately needs support as they age out of the paediatric system.
A short bit of why I care about this:
My son’s cancer is Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma, a rare sarcoma. He was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour at the age of 2 1/2 years old (treatment included surgery, chemo, radiation). The cancer recurred when he was 5 1/2 (treatment included surgery and 1.5 years of chemo). The cancer recurred again when he was 9 1/2 (treatment included surgery and full brain and spine radiation).