Listening to Childhood and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: Saskia Degen – ‘The ‘after cancer’ matters’

My name is Saskia and I was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at age 2.

For me, there’s no life before and after cancer, just the one after. For more than 20 years I thought this cancer couldn’t have any impact on my life because I was too young to remember anything.

But when I look back now, there’s a lot of physical issues, fear and anxiety actually caused by the cancer that really has an impact to my current life.

I really tried to push all the negative feelings away I felt for years. I said to myself “I have to be grateful”, “I’m not allowed to feel this, others are worse off”, etc.

After a psychological rock bottom I know now – cancer has an impact to everyone’s life a, because the “after cancer” matters and nothing will be the way it was before. At this point in my life I would have been grateful for an app that would have shown me wich late-effects cancer can have and how can I get in touch with Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer Survivors (CAYACS).

Every CAYACS deserves to get the most out of the life after cancer and today’s technology can make this possible through access to information, help and connecting survivors.