Children with cancer receive a bead after any treatment, procedure or intervention, which represent that specific event. These are threaded on to a string to help map out their unique journey. Parents often keep a record of healthcare episodes to ask for the relevant bead for their child from the hospital play specialists or support workers on their ward.
The bead trail is initiated by beads speeling out the child’s name. The beads are all bright and colourful, signifying a plethora of events from an overnight hospital stay, removal of a plaster/stitch, eye drops, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to loss of hair and blood or platelet transfusions and many more. At the end of treatment, the child gets an extra special end of treatment bead to mark the completion of a very hard, emotional and sometimes long journey.
The beads mark the patient’s journey whilst providing an opportunity for them to talk to others experiencing similar treatment. The beads also facilitate conversations about what they are going through with grandparents, siblings, friends and others. Children who can attend school often take their beads in to show classmates and teachers and have found that it helps the child tell their own story about what they are going through. Bead trails are sometimes used by psychologists as a way of helping a child or adolescent to work through their feelings about the journey they are going through.
Beads of Courage is one of the main bead trails available for children with cancer and blood disorders.
Further information:
http://www.beadsofcourage.org/
Date Page last reviewed: February 2026