COVID-19: how it threatens children like Eleanor, the 'little warriors' you help as they fight cancer.
As each of us does what we must to help protect our community from COVID-19, I’m worried about the threat to the children with cancer you help through Fight Cancer Foundation.
Children like six-year-old Eleanor.
Eleanor has leukaemia, and it means even in normal times she is at risk from infection.
Yet COVID-19 puts her and other children fighting cancer in even greater danger.
What’s amazing is that thanks to you, Eleanor had started Grade 1 this year in a blaze of glory, so happy she hadn’t been left behind because of her treatment, but all that stopped when COVID-19 forced Eleanor out of school and into isolation at home to protect her from infection. Eleanor’s mum, Meredith, told us:
“It felt like we’ve been cut off at the knees.”
Our challenge now - your challenge - is to make sure children like Eleanor at risk of going back into isolation AND other children fighting their cancer in hospital today, don’t fall behind in their education.
If you can, please donate by 30 June to meet the tax deadline.
Eleanor was diagnosed with cancer at age six.
Your kindness will help make sure an expert teacher - like Eleanor’s teachers Trisha and Jan - can be at the bedside of children with cancer. They can set up a ‘virtual classroom’, so learning can continue even when the child must stay in bed.
It takes ideas, energy and enthusiasm to help a child cut-off from the world by cancer.
Mums and dads get worn out, need to earn a living, have other children in the family who need care … and so they can’t always provide school for their child with cancer.
That’s where you step in.
Your kindness, with a donation today helps make sure a teacher like Trisha can be there to bring school to the child you help!
Bedside lessons meant Eleanor was able to keep up with her education.
While Eleanor received treatment she took part in our education support program.
She developed a special bond with her teachers Trisha and Jan.
Our education support program provides offers virtual learning for kids with cancer.
Eleanor returned to her regular school in a 'blaze of glory' at the start of 2020.
Times-tables are taught.
Spelling practiced.
Reading developed and enjoyed.
Your generosity means the child you help won’t be left behind at school. They won’t see their friends go up, while they stay down. You help them stay connected.
Trisha is much more than a teacher to Eleanor.
The teacher you support will be a friend when days are long.
Someone who understands when chemo makes the child you help tired, or steroid treatment makes them grumpy, or blood tests make them scared.
You lift spirits and confidence, and that’s amazingly powerful when a child is fighting cancer.
GOOD NEWS!
Eleanor is back at school with her friends, for now. But we need wonderful people like you to make sure all children with cancer continue to stay safe and get the education they need if they can’t go to school. Meredith calls them ‘little warriors’, but this is a battle too big to win on their own.
How will they ever catch up if they lose school now?
It’s going to be tough to keep helping these children, but I promise you, here at Fight Cancer Foundation we’ll do everything we can to make sure no child misses out on an education.
The critical link now is you. Your donation is precious.
Meredith said she knew something was wrong when Eleanor seemed to lose her sparkle.
Your generosity will give the gift of education to a child with cancer – and their sparkle! Thank you!
