Light in the Life Battle Project

Objectives

1. To encourage and shine hope of life on the new cancer patients who are receiving anti-cancer treatment in the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre.

2. To enhance the morale of the medical and nursing staff in the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre.

Methods

1. To compile a book about the cancer survivors, which contains:

i) photographs

ii) brief personal particulars

iii) disease information i.e. the type of cancer, date of diagnosis, age at diagnosis, date of stopping treatment, etc.

iv) recent condition: education, employment, quality of life

v) words of sympathy, encouragement and sharing of experience, greetings.

2. To create a web page of the above book in the web site of the Department of Paediatrics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

3. To provide information of the cancer survivors on the noticeboard in the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre.

4. To arrange activities and visits to new cancer patients and families by cancer survivors, individually or in groups.

Epilogue

The name "Light in the Life Battle" was chosen because it was thought to best describe the essence of the project, and that is to allow the children who have recovered from cancer to tell their own stories to patients and their parents so that they can see a ray of hope in a time of fear and uncertainty.

The initial draft of the plan received the support and encouragement from the Department of Paediatrics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The project took a big step forward with the financial support provided by the Suen Chi Sun Charitable Foundation.

The project faced many hurdles in the early stages. The first part-time employee for the project left after one week on the job. It took some time before we could find the right person to fill the post. Fortunately, Ms Tang Yuet May, an experienced journalist, who had been an editor for Breakthrough Junior and other magazines, agreed to take up the position. A family member of Ms Tang had once been a leukaemia patient and had undergone chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. This enabled her to better understand the feelings of the patients who related to her their own experiences. Based on their accounts, she wrote and edited thirty touching stories in a clear and cogent style.

Supported by Camp Quality Hong Kong, we organized A New Year Party on January 1, 2001. About three hundred child patients, their parents, medical staff and voluntary workers attended the party. The main event of that day was a performance by child patients. At this gathering, the parents of the child patients could share their experiences in facing difficult times with each other and see for themselves that children who have recovered from cancer could lead happy and healthy lives.

The project also includes visits to the new patients. Together with the staff of Children's Cancer Foundation, we have recruited more than ten ex-patients and their families to be our "Ambassadors of the Light in the Life Battle" with the mission to visit families of newly admitted patients to the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre to reinforce their confidence. The success of this project has prompted the Children's Cancer Foundation to extend similar plan to other hospitals.

In this age of information technology, the development of the internet has enabled people to acquire an unprecedented variety of knowledge. The many popular overseas websites on childhood cancer are in English which are not understood by many people in Hong Kong. We were lucky to have the help of the Advantage Trust in establishing an English and Chinese bi-lingual website so that both Chinese and English speaking people can access to information on childhood cancer.

We are planning to appoint a publication company to publish a collection of the thirty real-life stories of children who have recovered from cancer. The objectives are to raise public awareness of the disease and the fact that 70% to 80% of the patients have recovered and lead normal lives going to school or to work, getting married and having children.

Lastly, we would like to thank the patients, their families and the medical staff of the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre for their support of the project, especially the thirty rehabilitated patients for agreeing to be interviewed or to write down their experiences for the book. We deeply appreciate their courage and their trust in us.

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