This September – during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (CCAM) - CCLG has launched its #SpotChildCancer campaign, and is urging parents to be confident in knowing the signs and symptoms of children’s cancers and to “trust their instincts” if they feel something is ‘not right’ with their child.
After launching CCLG's ‘referral guidelines for suspected cancer in children’, designed to help doctors recognise suspected cancer in children and know when to make a referral to specialist services, CCLG has collated the key signs and symptoms from this resource on its website and organised them by different areas of the body, to help parents identify them.
Ashley Ball-Gamble, CEO CCLG, said:
“This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we want to highlight the importance of knowing the signs and symptoms of childhood cancer and empower parents to trust in themselves if they believe something isn’t right with their child’s health.
“Although many of us are aware of the symptoms of cancer in adulthood – for example, a lump, changes to moles or weight loss – many people are unfamiliar with symptoms that can indicate cancer in children.
“These can vary hugely dependent on the tumour and may include non-specific signs and symptoms such as persistent infections, fevers, painful joints and persistent vomiting.
“Many parents have said that they had a gut feeling or instinct that something wasn’t right with their child, so it’s vital that your concerns are listened to.
“This is why parental concern is listed as a high priority for GPs to consider when referring a child or young person to hospital for suspected cancer.
“If signs and symptoms don’t resolve themselves or clear up following any recommended course of action from your GP, or you find yourself visiting your GP again with the same complaint, you should ensure you voice your concerns and request an onward referral if appropriate.”
A parent knows their child best
A mum from Hartlepool is supporting CCLG’s awareness-raising work after her daughter was twice wrongly diagnosed with polyps at her GP’s surgery.
Amy Owen’s daughter Isabellah was just three years old when she was diagnosed with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in August 2021.
Isabellah first developed symptoms a few weeks before her diagnosis, presenting with a congested nose, which Amy put down to hay fever or a cold she’d picked up at nursery. Soon after, she started snoring, which she’d never done before, and developed bad breath and breathing difficulties.
Amy and her husband Rob decided to take her to the GP, where she was twice diagnosed with polyps. Not happy with that assessment, they took their daughter to A&E, where they were told the same.
By the next day, they could see something protruding from her nose, which was later discovered to be a tumour. They took her back to A&E before they were transferred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, where eventually they were told Isabellah’s devastating diagnosis.
Amy emphasised the importance of knowing the signs and symptoms of childhood cancer and urged parents to trust their instinct.
She said:
“It’s all about knowing the symptoms and going with your gut.
“We certainly never thought it could be what it was. Cancer had never even crossed our mind. But we knew it was something more serious than polyps.
“We heard that GPs don’t see childhood cancers very often and misdiagnoses often happen, so GPs being more educated in childhood cancers is a really good thing.”
Child Cancer Smart
CCLG has been doing further vital work in raising awareness for both the public and GPs, including its Child Cancer Smart project, a collaboration led by CCLG and the University of Nottingham, in partnership with the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust, Young Lives vs Cancer and Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer (TYAC)
Child Cancer Smart aims to reduce the time taken to diagnose cancer in children, teenagers and young adults by raising awareness of its signs and symptoms among the general public and healthcare professionals alike.
Ashley Ball-Gamble added: “Increased education, for both professionals and the public, will help improve diagnosis times to ensure fewer children are impacted by the harmful and lasting effects of late-stage treatment and, ultimately, survive cancer.
“Though it can be difficult to identify those who need further investigation and distressing for families to be referred when it’s found not to be cancer, the consequences are far worse if a child isn’t referred when symptoms do turn out to be cancer.
“Nobody wants to miss the signs of childhood cancer and that’s why the tools we are providing are so important.”
If you’re worried your child may be displaying cancer symptoms, visit our symptom checker page