Peer Support Volunteer Sally-Ann on talking to other parents: ‘A problem shared is a problem halved’

It was back in 2008 when my teenage daughter Karen was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). As a parent you always want to be looking after your children, and at first it was such a frightening and overwhelming diagnosis when you’re told your child has cancer.

Then when we started the journey with treatment, all I remember thinking is I would just love to speak to someone who has been through this journey and has come out the other end of it. Family and friends are very supportive, but they don’t maybe have a full understanding of the journey you’re going through.

Thankfully Karen came through it and she’s doing really well now

All of the conversations I’ve had are with mothers of children going through treatment. Some of them would say they didn’t want to talk to family about certain things or worries they had, or about how family were reacting to them, or maybe it’s their own reactions to the child’s diagnosis they want to talk about.

Others like to know about how you got through it and what it’s like after treatment. They might start a conversation about one thing when they ring you first, and it can go down all sorts of paths, including maybe how siblings are reacting to the child being sick, so it really varies from person to person.

It’s great because for the people we’re speaking to, they don’t have to travel or even have to see the person they’re speaking to, they can do it from the comfort of their own home. People who I’ve been in touch with find it immensely comforting talking to someone who’s been through it themselves.

There are other things that don’t even occur to you until you’re there in that position, and that the doctors and nurses can’t take care of.