Dr Kevon Din­di­al

Con­sul­tant Pae­di­atric Haema­tol­o­gist/On­col­o­gist and Chair­man of Chil­dren’s Life Fund Au­thor­i­ty

Hop­ing all chil­dren had a hap­py first week of the new school year.

I re­mem­ber the feel­ing of anx­i­ety, ex­cite­ment, cu­rios­i­ty, fright — and all the emo­tions in be­tween — when I was start­ing a new school year dur­ing my for­ma­tive years. The first day of school is a spe­cial mile­stone, not on­ly for chil­dren but al­so for par­ents. It rep­re­sents growth, new op­por­tu­ni­ties and, for many par­ents, a cher­ished core mem­o­ry as they watch their chil­dren ma­ture and take an­oth­er step for­ward in life.

But in the world of child­hood can­cer, to­day may look a lit­tle dif­fer­ent for some fam­i­lies.

Some chil­dren will not be able to ex­pe­ri­ence the tra­di­tion­al first day of school. They may have wok­en up un­able to put on their new uni­form, un­able to take that pre­cious first-day-of-school pho­to­graph with their par­ents or pup­py, and un­able to ex­pe­ri­ence be­ing dropped off at school and run­ning ex­cit­ed­ly to meet their old and new friends.

In­stead, some chil­dren af­fect­ed by can­cer will spend the first day of the aca­d­e­m­ic year in a hos­pi­tal re­ceiv­ing chemother­a­py. Oth­ers may be un­able to at­tend school for weeks or months as they nav­i­gate treat­ment, hos­pi­tal ad­mis­sions and the many chal­lenges that ac­com­pa­ny a can­cer di­ag­no­sis.

As we cel­e­brate this im­por­tant mile­stone for so many chil­dren to­day, let us re­mem­ber those for whom the re­al­i­ty looks very dif­fer­ent.

Their jour­ney high­lights the many chal­lenges faced by chil­dren and fam­i­lies through­out the child­hood can­cer ex­pe­ri­ence. It al­so re­minds us why holis­tic child­hood can­cer care is so im­por­tant. Treat­ment is not just about chemother­a­py, surgery or ra­di­a­tion. It is about help­ing chil­dren main­tain as much nor­mal­cy, con­nec­tion, ed­u­ca­tion and emo­tion­al well-be­ing as pos­si­ble.

This re­quires col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween health­care pro­fes­sion­als, so­cial work­ers, ed­u­ca­tors, psy­chol­o­gists, fam­i­lies and the wider com­mu­ni­ty — work­ing to­geth­er to en­sure that even dur­ing the tough­est mo­ments, chil­dren can con­tin­ue to learn, grow, play and sim­ply be chil­dren.

As we con­tin­ue Child­hood Can­cer Aware­ness Month, let us cel­e­brate all the lit­tle ones who head­ed back to school last week — and re­mem­ber the brave war­riors who are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a very dif­fer­ent aca­d­e­m­ic year.

Their class­room may look dif­fer­ent, but their dreams and po­ten­tial re­main just as big.