How do I talk to my child

FormerMember
FormerMember
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I've been cancer free for 17 and feel very lucky to be in reasonable health we as a family are small there is me my partner our 13 year old son and my partners mum (in care home early on set dementia around 60 miles away)  my dad lived 150 miles from us we would visit whenever we could as our small family, he ws diagnosed September 2018 with cancer of his appendix and he lost his battle 6 months later march 2019 I and my son were devestated and to watch his decline from a fit man for his years to turn to nothing broke me we spoke to our son and explained grandad was poorly he won't get better and we should prepare to say goodbye. He too when the time came was devestated and has only recently began to be back too his normal self no more nightmares or tears he's no able to focus on the positive times with grandad. My partners mum who's in a care home was diagnosed with throat cancer was treated and was OK (may 2020) we spoke to our son again, again he was devestated but we were confident in positive outcome.  We'll today we receive the news its back and aggressive I've no idea how to cope watching a loved one again suffer,  how on earth can we have this conversation again with our son.  Bracuse we are such a small family we only have the 3 of us and us grown ups right now aren't strong enough to support our little man.  

  • Hi  and a very warm welcome to the online community

    It sounds like you've been through so much both with your own cancer diagnosis and then losing loved ones with cancer.

    I can understand why the prospect of telling your son about his grandmother is overwhelming so can I recommend this booklet from Macmillan called Talking to Children and Teenagers. It can be downloaded as a pdf or ordered as a booklet. You could also have a look through this information, again prepared by Macmillan, which gives tips to help you through the conversation.

    You might also find joining that joining the family and friends group helpful as it's a safe place to discuss your emotions as well as practical issues. If this is something that you'd like to do then clicking on the link I've created will take you straight there. You can then join and post in the same way as you did here.

    Sending a virtual ((hug))

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