Telling children

Hi  and welcome to the Online Community, although I am sorry to see you finding us and so sorry to hear about your husbands diagnosis.

A cancer diagnosis can bring a lot of stress, confusion and indeed questions but talking with people who are on the same journey can help a lot.

Can I first direct you to this link to our very supportive Liver, secondary cancer and Unknown primary cancer groups as this will open up your concerns about treatments to a wider audience who know exactly what your husband is going through at the moment.

Just follow the link above, hitting ‘Join the Group’ tab just under the main group name, then go to the 'Start a Discussion' tab and set up your own Discussion and introduce yourself to the group - you could just copy an paste what you have in this first post. 

We were very open with our granddaughters 4 and 3 as it was going to be rather obvious that something was going on. So "grandad was going to be poorly for a time, he will get medicine to make him better (there were no guarders that this would be the case) and his hair hair disappear for a time...... so you need to be Doc McStuffin and help look after him"........ and thy did a great job.

There is a section on the site about talking with children.

As I was the person with the cancer my experience of supporting someone is very limited, although my wife has been amazing over my 20 years. You may also find our Careers Only and  Friends and Family group a good place where you can connect with others support family through their cancer journey but more importantly the carers care for each other.

You may find our various Macmillan Support Line Services to be helpful - call them on 0808 808 00 00 This free service covers Emotional Support, Practical Information. Clinical Information, Financial Support and Work Guidance mostly open 8.00 to 8.00 but check the link.

We also have our ‘Ask an Expert’. section where you can post questions to our mostly Volunteer Experts but please allow 2 working days to get a reply.

Our Online Information and Support Section  is a good place to find information covering cancer diagnosis, treatments and pages covering most types of cancer.

Check to see if you have a Maggie’s Centre as they are great with all areas of the family including children...... and make sure any nursery staff understand what is going on.

When you feel up to it try putting some information in your profile. This really helps others when answering. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. Just click on YOUR username, select 'Edit Profile'. Put as much or as little in your profile and you can amend it at any time - you can see members profiles by hitting our forum names.

All the very best.

Hi and welcome to the online community and I'm really sorry to hear of your husband's diagnosis

Telling young children is not easy and the first thing you need to do is prepare yourself for the talk, a four year old may not fully understand what is going on and you have gauge what you will say beforehand.

Pick a time when there will be no other distractions and in a room where the room your son feels most at home in

I have found the following for you which may be of interest and help to you

The first one you can send to Macmillans for a printed book or you can download it, the other three you should download

Telling children send for printed book or download 

The following should be downloaded

Talking to children

Talking to children 2

Cancer Research - Talking to children

There are books that you can purchase on Amazon and possibly your local library may have suitable material.

You might it beneficial to join our Carers only forum group where you speak to others in the same position as you.

We also have a Secondary liver cancer forum group and a Liver cancer forum group that you can join

No matter which of our groups you join you can be assured that you will in the company of many friendly people all of whom are in a similar situation to yourself and will willingly share experiences with you.

I hope my information will be of interest to you, if you need anymore help please give me a shout out and I'll try to help you.

Ian

By clicking on any of the green text above will open up new pages for yo

Hi Monty39, I'd echo what the Bodach says re trying your local library. As a ( retired) librarian, I'm pretty confident it will have something. The only thing is the books may not be aimed at such a young child , so you may have to adapt them a bit.

Hi Monty39, I'd echo what the Bodach says re trying your local library. As a ( retired) librarian, I'm pretty confident it will have something. The only thing is the books may not be aimed at such a young child , so you may have to adapt them a bit.

Sorry for duplicating