Antonia Rubio was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when she was 24 in 2023. Here, for Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month, she tells us about the difficulties she faced in getting diagnosed, why it’s important to keep advocating for yourself when worried about your health, and the impact of having cancer as a young person.
April is Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month (TYACAM) – an opportunity for charities and the young people we support to come together and raise awareness of the unique set of challenges facing this age group after being told they have cancer.
Jeanette Hawkins and Jo Stark, Chief Nurses at CCLG, share tips on preparing for your child's medical appointments.
Hafsa Karim is a Speech and Language Therapist specialising in paediatric and adolescent oncology at UCLH and a member of CCLG. Here, she shares more about her role in working with children and young people with cancer.
Dr Lisa Russell at the University of Newcastle is leading a £100,000 research project, funded by Ruby’s ‘Live Kindly, Live Loudly’ Fund (CCLG). The study aims to identify key interactions between super-enhancers and proto-oncogenes that drive T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Nurse Debbie Critoph and Dr Luke Smith are healthcare professionals and researchers in clinical communication in young people with cancer. Here, they tell us about how they developed good practice guidelines to help peers effectively communicate with teenagers and young adults (TYA) with cancer to engage them in the level of communication they need.
Mandy Berriman's son, Peter, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in January 2019 when he was eight years old. She tells us how using social media to find information and connect with other families both helped her and presented challenges during Peter’s treatment.
Eilidh Mackay, 23, was diagnosed with leukaemia a type of blood cancer, when she was 14, and, while undergoing treatment for this, she was also diagnosed with thyroid cancer aged 17, which relapsed in 2023.
Dr Liz Jestico is a senior lecturer in Children’s Nursing at Oxford Brookes University and researcher at the University of Bristol. Here, she tells us about a study she conducted where she talked to parents of children with cancer about how people in their social networks had supported them to make decisions.
