When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the family faces a variety of new medical terms and challenges. It is vital that parents understand the many aspects of the illness and treatment, as well as the experiences they may face and have to cope with during the treatment process. At such times, consistent, repeated and reliable information is invaluable. One way to deliver this is through written information in simple language targeted at parents and carers. There are many resources available online - here are two of my favourite ones - The
Children's Oncology Group Family Handbook and the
Children's Cancer and Leukemia Group Parents Guide.
I had not been able to find a similar good resource targeted at parents of children with cancer in India till I came across and excellent resource made by St Jude India ChildCare Centres and the clinical team at Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. With their permission we have now adapted for the use of our parents whose children are being treated at Max Institute of Cancer Care. They are available in
English and in Hindi.
