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Summer 2010 Vol.1 No. 3


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Insight Into Women's Cancer
My Anything but Ordinary Journey
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My Anything but Ordinary Journey
Karen Janes & Gina MacKenzie - Patient & Family Counselling
Patient & Family Counselling, BC Cancer Agency Vancouver

It is very difficult to keep cancer a secret in the family especially when children are involved. Even very young children can sense that something is wrong and they may have questions, worries and fears. Children will use their very active imaginations if they have no credible information to work with. They will draw information, right or wrong, from other experiences they have had to understand what is happening.

Someone in your family has cancer and a world has been created for your child to explore their feelings, worries and questions about cancer. An interactive world where they can create, discover, play, draw, feel, learn, explore.

Welcome to My Anything But Ordinary Journey at www.cancerinthefamily.ca, a website created for children ages 6-12, their family members and other support people. This is the newest addition to the British Columbia Cancer Agency's program of support for children and families touched by cancer.

The website opens with a welcoming page which fills in with colour as the child completes activities. They can create an Explorer and travel buddies to accompany them on their website journey, change the weather on their travels, and create a travel journal that links activities with a question to think about or talk over with others. Along the way, children can play a submarine matching game; draw on the rock wall; discover the healthy fruits and vegetable in the secret garden; create a sand castle and use their rocket ship in a scavenger hunt. The activities are designed to be fun, interactive ways to learn, express, and to communicate reassurance to children.

Cancer in my Family encourages communication in families and provides support for parents and others working with children. Located in the section For Adults parents will be provided with information about the website as well as find a useful guide entitled Reaching Out to Your Children When Cancer Comes to Your Family: A Guide for Parents. This guide provides information to help parents and families talk about the impact of cancer on their lives.  



It includes ideas about what to except from children, what you may be able to do or say and suggestions about what you may want to discuss as a family and individually.

While the BC Cancer Agency runs children's group programs in its centres and has developed a children's activity book Time for Me, the unmet need remained - how to make similar support accessible in situations where time or distance from BC Cancer Agency centres is an issue? BC Cancer Agency professionals teamed up with design experts to create this new website. Now children, parents, teachers, school counselors and others can access the website 24/7, anywhere there is Internet access, from the comfort of home - wearing their pajamas and fluffy slippers, if they like!

We hope that this website will help to open the way for parents and their children to talk with each other, to understand each other, to learn from each other, and to help each other.

www.cancerinthefamily.ca

Archived Insight Into Women's Cancer Pages
Spring 2010 Vol.1 No. 2  Regaining Our Equilibrium  Sydney Foran, MSW Clinical Social Worker
Winter 2010 Volume 01 No.1  Gynecological Cancer in the Family  Barbara Boyd and Mary McCullum
Fall 2009 Vol. 10 No. 4  The Inner and Outer Life  Janie Brown
Summer 2009 Vol.10 No.3  Insurance Discrimination & Hereditary Cancer  Barbara Boyd, MSc, CGC, CCGC
Spring 2009 Vol.10 No. 2  Research News from San Antonio 2008  Dr. Tamara Shenkier, FRCPC
Winter 2009 Vol.10 No.1  A Legacy Gift  Danielle Schroeder
Fall 2008 Vol. 9 No. 4  Creating Balance & Resiliency through Mindfulness  Catherine Traer-Martinez, MEd, RCC, Clinical Counselor
Summer 2008 Vol.9 No.3  Research at the BC Cancer Agency: Gaining Molecular Knowledge into Breast Cancer  Jennifer Wolfe, Wolfe Communications
Spring 2008 Vol.9 No.2  To Test or Not to Test? Implications for Hereditary Testing  Jenna Scott, MS, CGC
Winter 2008 Vol.9 No.1  Post Breast Therapy Pain  Dr. Pippa Hawley FRCPC, Pain & Symptom Management Specialist
Fall 2007 Vol. 8 No. 4  breast cancer now what?
(Uniting young women with breast cancer) 
Summer 2007 Vol.8 No.3  Returning To Work: Emotional Preparation   Maureen Parkinson, M.Ed C.C.R.C. & Lina Crossin, Masters Candidate
Spring 2007 Vol. 8 No. 2  Returning to Work- Things to Consider  Maureen Parkinson
Winter 2007 Vol. 8 No.1  Finding Authenticity  Sarah Sample, MSW, RSW
Fall 2006 Vol. 6 No. 4  Digital Mammography  Dr. Patricia Hassell, MDCM FRCP, Screening Radiologist
Summer 2006 Vol.7 No.3  Highlights from ASCO  Dr. Karen Gelmon, MD, FRCPC
Spring 2006 Vol. 7 No. 2  Survivor's Guilt   Dawn Turpin
Winter 2006 Vol. 7 No.1  The Latest Advances in Adjuvant Therapy  Dr. Susan Ellard
Fall 2005 Vol. 6 No. 4  Finding Better Quality of Life in "Chemo Cocktails"  By Laurene Clark, Patient Advocate, Victoria, BC
Summer 2005 Vol. 6 No. 3  An Update on Breast Cancer Research  Dr. Caroline Lorisch MD, FRCPC
Spring 2005 Vol. 6 No. 2  Disclosing Your Cancer Experience at Work  Maureen Parkinson, Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor, BC Cancer Agency Vancouver
Winter 2005 Vol. 6 No. 1  Change and Transition  Sherri Magee Ph.D. & Kathy Scalzo M.S.O.D
Summer 2004 Vol. 5 No. 3  Anemia and Breast Cancer  Dr. Barbara Melosky, MD FRCPC
Fall 2003 Vol.4 No.4  The Reconstruction of Breasts   Peter Lennox, MD, FRCSC & Patty Clugston, MD, FRCSC
Fall 2002 Vol.3 No.4  Living with the Fear of Recurrence: The Courage to Find Peace of Mind  Janie Brown, RN, MSW, MA(Psych).
Summer 2002 Vol.3 No.3  A Relationship After Breast Cancer?  Sandra Rotholc, M.S.W., R.M.F.T
Fall 2001 Vol.2 No.4  Menopause & Breast Cancer (part 2)   Joelle Machia, RN BSN BA
Summer 2001 Vol.2 No.3  Menopause and Breast Cancer   Joelle Machia, RN BSN BA,
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