Surround yourself with friends, turn a trip abroad for treatment into a leisure one and keep up with your studies.
These are the things that kept cancer survivors Maya Theuma and Martina Fenech afloat on their road to recovery.
The two were speaking to Times of Malta at the Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre, a place that they keep returning to because of its welcoming environment despite its link to the devastating diagnosis.
The centre, at Mater Dei Hospital, recently adopted a Children and Adolescent policy through which Rainbow Ward accepts patients aged up to 21 years.
With the help of Puttinu Cares Foundation and several businesses, the ward now also hosts a room where adolescents and young adults can take a break from the sterile hospital environment and play games, watch TV, listen to music, study or even sit for exams.
Cancel all exams
A cancer diagnosis was the last thing on Martina’s mind when she was gearing up for her O Level exams.
Aged 15, she was diagnosed with a rare malignant cancer that attacked her brain and nervous system.
“I had no other option but to cancel all my exams and repeat the year,” she says.
“Facing the disease and its treatment is already a lot to deal with and looking back I know that keeping some sense of ‘normality’ and routine, such as online tutoring, could help motivate young cancer patients,” she says eight years on.
Her studies was one of the first things that the consultants at the Royal Marsden Hospital brought up when she flew over for treatment.
While there, Martina was treated at a unit specifically for teenagers and she used to get together with patients of a similar age in a lounge area.
It was equipped with a jukebox, PlayStation and gaming chairs, and magazines and books for a young audience.
The environment is part of the recovery
“As they say, the environment is part of the recovery, and the facilities motivated me to go to hospital even more,” she says.
“Hanging out with patients my age outside of the ward helped me adapt to the situation even more.”
Now 23, Martina recalls receiving treatment at Mater Dei before Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre was built.
The facilities back then were limited, and all patients shared the same playroom.
The need for an adolescents’ room was often flagged over the years, and Martina, who has joined Puttinu as a volunteer since her recovery, is seeing that dream come true.
An escape
For Maya, having a place where she could spend time with her closest friends helped her ‘escape’, if only briefly, from her hospital room, and just be an adolescent.
Now 15, Maya has been in remission for a year, after being treated for Ewing’s Sarcoma and having had her femur replaced.
In her case, she managed to carry on with her studies but decided to take her time to tell her schoolfriends about the diagnosis. Her two closest friends spent hours with her at home and hospital and she considers them part of her pillar of strength and entertainment.
Her mother, Sandra, recalls that Maya was lucky to be surrounded by a small network of friends and relatives.
“Giving up was not on the cards. This was a situation that we had suddenly found ourselves in and we had to deal with it,” she explains.
“In a way Maya supported us as she was very practical. She’d be like: what’s next? Let’s do it. Seeing her that way motivated us to keep strong.”
Sandra believes that part of Maya’s recovery was down to her attitude.
As much as possible Maya tried to continue with life as if it was business as usual, so tutors visited her at hospital and whenever possible, she submitted homework.
Turning things around
Like Martina, Maya too received treatment in England.
Both speak of how they tried to turn the trip around and extend it into a ‘vacation’.
Maya received treatment in Oxford and her family decided to spend some days in London, a city that held lovely memories for the teenager.
Martina, meanwhile, transformed her visit into an adventure, exploring a city she had never been to.
“Back then my biggest concern was that I was going to miss the grandest summer: the summer that students spend years dreaming about.
“Just two days before flying out I told my father I wasn’t going to go for treatment, but we tried turning things around and adopt the attitude that we were going to enjoy summer in a slightly different way,” she recalls, laughing.
It still “hurts” that she missed out on prom and graduation, but as with everything, she tried to turn her cancer experience around.
“At the end of it all I thought to myself that I had just experienced the worst thing ever and I was not going to let it ruin my life,” she adds.
More information on how to help Puttinu Cares is available on 9967 2790 or info@puttinucares.org, or the Puttinu Cares Facebook page.
Donations of €6.99 can be made on 5061 8939, and donors can also call on 5160 2007 to give €10, 5170 2006 to give €15 and 5180 2008 to give €25.
I Am and I Will – World Cancer Day
World Cancer Day, being marked today, is a campaign built to resonate, inspire change and mobilise action long after the day has passed. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO):
– Cancer is a leading cause of death for children and adolescents: some 300,000 children aged up to 19 years are diagnosed with cancer each year.
– The most common categories of childhood cancers include leukaemia, brain cancer, lymphoma and solid tumours, such as neuroblastoma and Wilms tumour.
– In high-income countries more than 80 per cent of children with cancer are cured, but only about 20 per cent of child patients are cured in many low and middle-income countries.
– Improving outcomes for children with cancer requires early and accurate diagnosis followed by effective treatment.
– Most childhood cancers can be cured with generic medicines and other forms of treatments including surgery and radiotherapy. Treatment of childhood cancer can be cost-effective in all income settings.