Ready, Set, Go—

Childhood Cancer Survivors Invited To Statewide Event

HAMDEN — The Connecticut Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society invites young cancer survivors and their families to a free program, “Ready, Set, Go… The Journey Forward After Childhood Cancer Treatment.” Presented with support from the Connecticut Challenge, “Ready, Set, Go…” will feature specialists from the HEROS Clinic at Yale University, Yale Pediatric Neuropsychology, CancerCare of Connecticut, and Wind Over Wings, who will work with children and their parents to explore issues that young children and families may face as cancer survivors.

This event is scheduled for Saturday, March 14, from 10 am to 2 pm at the Eli Whitney Children’s Museum. Due to space restrictions, attendance will be limited.

“Ready, Set, Go…”will start with the Soaring with Hope program, where guests will meet Skywalker, a golden eagle, and his three rescued bird friends and become inspired by their stories of recovery, rehabilitation, and survivorship.

A complimentary lunch will be served, followed by “Crafting Ways to Cope” for children and adolescents, and “Being Proactive: Understanding the emotional and learning challenges a child can face as a cancer survivor” for parents and adult family members. The event will end with an ice cream social.

The treatment of childhood cancer is one of oncology’s great success stories. Most children and young adults under age 20 diagnosed with cancer prior to 1970 had little hope of being cured.

Since then, cure rates, as measured in five-year survival, have increased to 78 percent. Consequently, the size of the population of survivors of childhood cancer has grown dramatically — to 270,000 individuals of all ages as of 1997.

This translates into about 1 in 640 adults between the ages of 20 to 39 who have a history of cancer, which is estimated to increase to 1 in 250 young adults by the year 2010.

Not widely recognized are the unintended consequences of this success. Along with the impressive gains in survival have come “late effects” that may impair some survivors’ health and quality of life.

These late effects include complications, disabilities, or adverse outcomes that are the result of the disease process, the treatment, or both. Patterns of late effects have emerged among subgroups of childhood cancer survivors that have contributed to an appreciation of cancer as a chronic disease with implications for continuing care.

“Ready, Set, Go…” is a free event, but space is limited. To register or for more information, contact Shelley Carpenter, patient services manager, at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, 203-427-2049 or email shelley.carpenter@lls.org.