This April, we’re taking part in Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month to shine a light on cancer in young people. Alisha was diagnosed with cancer when she was 12 years old. She spent two years receiving treatment including surgery, radiotherapy and seven different types of chemotherapy. Alisha, and her mum Lisa, tell us about their journey: Alisha: “When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, everything changed. I had two years of treatments and procedures and spent most days in hospital. The chemotherapy was really harsh on my body, and I was left not able to walk, so I had to rebuild everything back up. I have a lot of scarring and kidney damage from other procedures too.” “It affected my mental health a lot, I felt very depressed. It was not a normal start to my teenage years. I spent so much time in hospital that I didn’t have many conversations with my friends, and any time we did speak it was about the cancer. It felt like I only really spoke to the doctors.” Candlelighters support: Alisha: “I first came to know Candlelighters on my first ever day in hospital. It was the day I got diagnosed and one of the Family Support Workers came up to me. She made me feel like I wasn’t in this big mess alone. She told me about everything Candlelighters do to support children with cancer, and their families. They’ve helped me in a lot of ways since then, both during the cancer stages and now that I’m in remission. On the wards, they gave me hope. Even when I was at my worst and most depressed, they never gave up on me. If I hadn’t had them, I’d have been in a lot worse state.” Lisa: “It was really intense. Alisha locked herself away really and wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t want to do anything. Having the Candlelighters team come in and take the pressure off really helped. They would always try and make her smile and bring her out of how she was feeling. They also helped me as Alisha’s mum, we had financial support and they gave me a room to sleep in, which is so amazing after sleeping on an armchair in the ward. I think what’s also important is that Candlelighters are still there for us after we finished treatment. A lot of support just seems to stop and you’re left thinking ‘what do we do now?’ “The fun days and experiences have been really special too – like Sherburn Aero Day. Alisha had been struggling a lot and hadn’t really left her bedroom, she didn’t want to come but I persuaded her. She ended up going up in a plane for the first time and rode in sports cars – I have never seen her smile so much! It really was a point where she started coming out of her shell again and going out more.” Alisha: “I think raising awareness is so important. If you haven’t been affected by it, it’s difficult to understand. You never think cancer will happen to you, but it could and it did for me. It’s important that people know how much cancer changes your life. We’re a year in the clear now and it’s still affecting all of us, we’re not even the slightest bit back to normal. Organisations like Candlelighters make such a big difference. There’s so many children and young people experiencing cancer and a lot of us would be lost without these charities – I don’t think we wouldn’t have survived without Candlelighters.”
Lisa adds: “Alisha had treatment and got the all clear, and then the cancer came back a month later and she had to restart treatment. We were either admitted in hospital, or in from 9 in the morning to the middle of the night, we didn’t get a break for two years.”
Raising awareness 
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