Raining in my heart is a documentary released the last November of 2017 by real stories,

of three children who enrolled in cancer research clinical trials in Britain.

With all the conventional treatment exhausted, these kids are offered to try immunotherapy.

Sophie Ryan-Palmar (12 years old), whose cancer came back four times,

Fabian Bates (11 years old) diagnosed with Leukemia and

Chloe (3 years old) who’s Neuroblastoma has spread throughout her body.

This documentary follows these children and their families for 2 years,
giving them space to talk about their feelings and emotions as well as the decision-making process during this battle.
This documentary honors these heroic children who are helping discover new cancer treatments
and helps by raising awareness on this subject and offering hope to other cancer patients.

You can watch the full documentary here:

Chloe’s parents created a diary and they are sharing a lot of their battle on her Facebook page, to read more about her story click here.  

Sam a child diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, he was not eligible for clinical trials because he was only 2 years old. Sam lost the battle against cancer, but his mom, Erin Benson, never gave up to make him happy. Inspired by the support of friends and family she founded With Purpose a youth-led movement dedicated to creating a world where kids with cancer have access to safe and effective treatment.

Recently she wrote a blog post “I’m the Executive Director of a Nonprofit… and a Waitress, the invisible cost of cancer”, where she shares a very delicate and not so openly talk aspect about going through childhood cancer: the financial aspect.

Everyday life struggle, effort, pain, and love, continue after we face a cancer battle of our relatives and loved ones and still we have to pay the bills.

We recommend you to read her blog post about courage, about standing up, about coping and resiliency, about being patient with yourself.

Whenever you feel desperate by not knowing what to do, follow her advice:

• “What you do is hold your people close and love them.”

• “What you do is find gratitude for what you have, knowing that nothing is permanent.”

• “What you do is the best you can.”

We hope this can bring some inspiration to you.

Part of an integrative oncological treatment is to take care of all aspect of our children; music is a powerful expression tool that reduces anxiety, depression, and pain, it can also help the children to cope better with hospitalizations.
In Music therapy, the intention is to promote health by using music experiences including instrument play, movement, singing, etc.

In this video Ryan Judd from The Rhythm Tree shares with us, an interview with Catherine,
mother of Zoe who was diagnosed with a brain tumor and after the surgery music therapy helped her a lot to work out with her emotions.

For Ryan, Music therapy is honoring the child spirit and improving the quality of life.

Consider complementary methods in this road since it can bring a lot of benefits in the quality of life of a child.

What are the main signs and symptoms of Retinoblastoma? Find out in this short video.

In collaboration with Childhood Cancer International and the International Society of Paediatric Oncology, Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)
has spearheaded a campaign targeted at primary and community healthcare workers to raise awareness of early ‘Signs and Symptoms’ of childhood cancer.
As part of this campaign is a series of expert films narrated by doctors, a nurse, a cancer survivor and a parent to help improve early diagnosis of cancer,
particularly in low-income countries where need is greatest.

Retinoblastoma is curable when diagnosed early and treated appropriately.
This post is dedicated to inspiration and awareness.
Often affected families who underwent though this road get a call to action to help other families and make their path easier by sharing
or creating tools and information to friends, teachers, medical students,
who can help with the early detection. It is very simple to catch Retinoblastoma at an early stage.

Flash photography is one of the easiest ways to detect a life-threatening eye cancer called Retinoblastoma.
The tumor can develop in young children from birth and often reflects back as a white pupil. Early detection is the key to saving their sight and their lives.
If caught early, less invasive treatment can be used, can help saving the sight of the child.
Unfortunately, awareness of this disease is low, and it often goes undiagnosed for long periods of time.

The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust developed this campaign in order to show parents that they can detect eye cancer in their child simply by taking a photo.

You can also download our See Red poster, which explains how a professional should check children’s eyes for retinoblastoma using a red reflex test.

The CRADLE app or White Eye Detector is an application that helps parents detect the appearance of a white eye in pictures of their children available for Apple® and Android® devices.
It was developed by the Chemist Bryan Shawfrom Baylor University after his son Noah, who lost his eye due to Retinoblastoma.
To read more about his story and watch an incredible TED talk go to this link.

Simple awareness and follow-through can save a child’s vision or even its life.

The medical term for this white eye reflex or reflection is leukocoria, leukos means white and kore means pupil.
Seeing a white glow in your child’s eye can be extremely worrying, but please remember that retinoblastoma is very rare and there are several other causes of white eye.
But to rule out anything serious, we always encourage you to visit your pediatrician or family doctor.

Help us share the knowledge! 

Is your child suffering from Nausea?

We know that in order to prevent or decrease Nausea, a doctor may prescribe anti-nausea meds (such as Zofran, Ondansetron, Emend etc.)
which you should give a couple of days BEFORE a chemotherapy treatment cycle.

However, nausea can come and go also long after chemo has ended and if you do not want your child to take such meds frequently,
here are a few natural remedies which we gathered from our parents’ community, to ease nausea:

1. Popsicles (water-based and NOT dairy).
2. Watermelon.
3. Almonds.
4. Lemon, lime (a glass of water with a lot of lemon in it).
5. Medical Cannabis drops (available in some countries and states).
6. Ginger, peppermint, plain yogurt, rice.
7. There is also naturopathic (plant-based) medicine, which any naturopath can make and which contains the following:

Tincture.Zingiber off. 30% Alpinia off. 20% Elettaria. 20% Mentha piperita. 15% Matricaria rec. 15%

Use: 60 drops 4 times a day. Drink with water or juice.

Remember, what helps one child may not help another, therefore you should try different solutions to solve the problem.

If you know of any other remedy, please send it to us and we will add it to this list.