Your child just received a diagnosis of Hepatoblastoma, a literal one-in-one-million chance type of cancer. Now what?
Your mind is spinning, your heart is racing, and you have so many questions; you don’t know which one to start with or even better, who do you ask?
Over the past few years, the Hepatoblastoma Resource Network (HRN) has been picking up steam. One of the areas the HRN has been working diligently on is the Hepatoblastoma Parent Connection. These parents volunteer their time to listen and provide support, based on a shared experience, to other parents with children going through treatment.
Currently, we have parents from three different countries, who have been trained on how to best help someone who they can relate to on so many levels. The Hepatoblastoma parent connection mentors have a variety of experiences: treated at different facilities, transplant patients, resection patients, relapse patients, metastasis, and non-responsive tumors. We are comprised mostly of long-term survivor parents, as well as some bereaved parents, and participants are matched according to their needs.
During the training, one common statement said from everyone was how alone they felt at their child’s treatment center. Since Hepatoblastoma is a one-in-a-million cancer, the chances of being in a medical facility with another family are just as rare as the cancer itself.
This group of trained parents all have the same thought of making a new Hepatoblastoma family feel like they do not have to go through this alone.
If you are interested in being connected with one of our trained parent partners, simply send us a message via e-mail: connect@Hepatoblastoma.org.
Written By: Erin Locke