Chemo Free Christmas

Spending Christmas in hospital while your child is receiving treatment can be incredibly isolating. Your contrasting situation with other ‘normal’ families made all the starker. It’s often at this sensitive time of year, that families look towards a future festive period that’s hospital, chemo and cancer free.

Because of Lily’s condition, we find it very hard to think about Christmas or make any plans. We don’t know what Lily’s health will be like, whether we’ll be in a hospital room, or celebrating with family. Cancer consumes everything in your life. Anything that should be normal is taken over by worry and grief.

Lianna, Lily’s mum.

Lily was diagnosed with a brain tumour that stems from the Optic Pathway when she was one, causing her visual impairment. She is now facing a further year of treatment and her family look forward to the day they can celebrate a Chemo Free Christmas.

In December, we’ll be sharing stories of more children and their experiences of chemotherapy at Christmas.

For those celebrating multiple years’ chemo free, Christmas may begin to feel the same as before. But the effects of cancer linger, both physically, mentally and emotionally. Because chemo free doesn’t always mean that everything is back to normal.

Very quickly after treatment ends, the support systems we had relied on seemed to vanish. The message was clear: Vega is better. You are normal. Everything is normal. Go back to normal. But the impact of cancer on a family is not only felt whilst a child is receiving treatment – it lingers for many more years afterwards.

Kathi, Vega’s mum.

Vega finished treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in 2013.