Light in the Life Battle Project

Dr. Shing Ming Kong
The Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre
Department of Paediatrics
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

How it was started

On a grey Autumn day of 1999, the atmosphere inside the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre was depressive enough to dampen the spirits of everyone present. After the routine visit to the ward, I reported duty at the clinic. In came five-year-old Siu Ming and his mother who looked tired and haggard. She told me that she had not had any sleep the night before because she was very worried about a possible relapse of her son's illness. She was so worried that she contemplated committing suicide. She said, "I thought about jumping out of the window with my son." The last time she spoke to me about such worries, I had referred her for psychological counseling. I also explained to her that up to 80% of all childhood leukaemia cases were curable. I could not understand why none of that could have relieved her anxiety. She told me, "How can I not be worried? All that I see and hear at the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre is all about relapses or dying." Once again, I explained to her from a medical point of view that since the opening of the Prince of Wales Hospital in 1984, we have saved many children cancer patients and hoped that she could face the future with more confidence. She remained depressed and unconvinced despite my efforts. I was worried that she would do something foolish with devastating consequences. While I was trying to figure out what to do to help her, the next patient came in with his family. Coincidentally, he was a patient who had recovered from the same disease. That gave me an inspiration and I immediately introduced the two families so that they could share their experiences with each other. Half an hour later, Siu Ming's mother was transformed from a woman full of worries to one with hope because she had seen a happy and healthy child who, not too long ago, was brought down by the same illness as her son. That was not some abstract medical statistic. This was real and alive.

The above example was not an isolated case. Many parents of sick children had told me that they were like walking on high-wire not knowing when they would fall. Some also likened their experience to riding the roller-coaster, full of scary ups and downs.

After the incident, I returned to my office and thought over and over about why so many child patients and their parents were still so full of fear and anxiety despite the fact that our Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre had the most advanced medical facilities and provided high quality care and counseling services. I came to the conclusion that there were areas where we could improve in the service we provide. In addition, I wondered whether our dedicated doctors and nurses, who work so hard day in and day out, also experience moments of sorrow and despair under such a severe work pressure. These thoughts gave me the idea of the "Light in the Life Battle" project, aiming to encourage the child patients of the Children's Cancer Centre, their parents and all the medical staff with past success stories. The following is a brief introduction of this project.

The project

Background

In the last twenty to thirty years, there has been dramatic improvement in the survival of childhood cancer. About seventy per cent of children with cancer are expected to live and lead a normal life. However, cancer is still, to many people, a horrible disease. The child, parents and other family members will normally have reactive depression, anxiety and sadness, when the diagnosis of cancer is made. The disease and its treatment cause a lot of suffering. The whole course of treatment (surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy) usually lasts for six months to two years, which means that the child must stay in the hospital from time to time.

Patients in the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre are those who have recently been diagnosed to have cancer (new patients), those who are currently receiving treatment, who are found to have relapse of cancer, and those who are terminal patients. Most of the time, the in-patients are very ill and depressed. The medical and nursing staff who look after these patients are under a lot of stress, and have a lot of pressure put on them from the understandably demanding patients and parents. They are also extremely sad and disappointed when some of their friends i.e. their patients lose the life battle.

On the other hand, 70% of the children with cancer are alive. Since the opening of Prince of Wales Hospital, there are many cancer survivors. They have normal life i.e. go to school, or work and contribute to the society. They come back to the hospital once or twice per year for follow up and routine health checks. Their success stories of cure from cancer will shine hope to those who are still in the life battle. The medical and nursing staff who are responsible to look after the cancer patients will be greatly encouraged to see the cancer survivors for they know that their work are not futile.

continue to next page >