How Associations Helped Me Rebuild Myself

This article is part of the “Healing in Two Voices” series developed within the e-QuoL project, which brings together survivor voices and professional reflections on life after childhood and adolescent cancer.  In this series, professional contributions do not aim to add explanations or conclusions. They create spaces for reflection — ethical, psychological, and clinical — opened by the testimonies themselves.

1

When people talk about life after childhood cancer, they often think about hospitals, treatments, or medical follow-up. But in my case, something else played a very important role: holidays organized by associations.

In the years following my illness, when I was around twelve or thirteen, I had the chance to go on several trips thanks to different associations.

These stays were very varied. I went skiing, even though at that time I was still limping. I went down the slopes in a kind of adapted sled guided by a professional behind me. I also tried sailing and spent holidays in Paris and in amusement parks.

One of the associations […] had the particularity of allowing one of the parents to accompany the child. This meant that children could go on holiday, but it also gave parents a chance to breathe a little. With them, I stayed in holiday resorts, spent time by the sea in southern France, and travelled to different regions of the country. At one point, my parents also received financial support that allowed our family to spend a few days together in Paris with my sister.

Looking back, I realize how much those moments mattered.

At that time, everyday life was not easy. I was still rebuilding myself, both physically and mentally. These holidays allowed me to step out of that routine. We changed environment, met other children, and experienced new activities. The atmosphere often felt like a summer camp: games, laughter, and friendships that formed quickly.

I remember especially my experience on a sailing boat. On the boat, I felt truly happy, free, and fulfilled. It remains a very strong memory. Since those holidays, one of my dreams has been to own a sailing boat one day.

During these trips, we were above all a group of children on holiday, and the illness moved into the background.

Even today, I believe these experiences played an important role in my recovery. They showed me that life could still be beautiful, even after a difficult period. They may also have planted a seed — a taste for travel. I do not know exactly how much those holidays influenced my desire to discover the world, but I know they helped me at a moment when I really needed it.

They gave me something simple but essential: happy memories, and the proof that life could still be beautiful.

Arthur Kayser, a French survivor

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Associations have a very important role in helping rebuild a child’s life after a cancer diagnosis. That rebuilding is not just physical, but also emotional, social, and even educational.

In Arthur’s case associations organised camps and holidays with the group of his peers who went through similar difficult challenges of cancer treatment.

In such camps childhood cancer survivors can communicate easier because they better understand each other. They are able to exchange their feelings and experiences of overcoming obstacles, they can process what they’ve been through. Among their peers children with cancer don’t feel alone or “different”. In this way kids can overcome feelings of isolation from peers which is very important part of social reintegration.

Camps also offer safe environments to build friendships and self-esteem. These moments help children feel like “just kids” again—not patients. Moreover, these feelings build wonderful and unforgettable memories like Arthur explained.

Offering different physical activities adapted to child’s abilities help regaining strength and function. This enables easier reintegration into normal life again and regaining confidence in their body.

Inviting family members to such camps helps healing the whole family because we know that when a child has cancer, the whole family is affected.

With this kind of activities associations act as the bridge between medical survival and real-life recovery and childhood cancer survivors can imagine a future again.

Lorna Zadravec Zaletel, radiotherapy oncologist, Oncology Institute of Ljubljana, Sloveniacologist. Children’s Hospital Zagreb, Croatia