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This Battle Which I Must Fight
Cancer in Canada's Children and Teenagers
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the help of many people.
For the data, we thank the pediatric oncologists across Canada
and the directors and technical staff of provincial and territorial
cancer registries. For record linkage and data analysis, we are indebted
to Martha Fair of Statistics Canada and Robert Semenciw
and Paul Villeneuve of Health Canada.
We thank the following people for the time and care they took in reading
drafts and for the helpful suggestions they offered:
- Ms. Jackie Brown and Ms. Beth Duthie, Public Affairs,
Foothills Hospital, Calgary, Alberta
- Dr. William Crist, Department of Hematology/Oncology, St. Jude
Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
- Dr. Christopher Fryer, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Bone
Marrow Transplant, UBC and British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver,
British Columbia
- Dr. Claire Infante-Rivard, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University,
Montreal, Quebec
- Dr. Elizabeth Kaegi, Medical Affairs and Cancer Control, Canadian
Cancer Society/National Cancer Institute of Canada, Toronto, Ontario
- Dr. Anthony Miller, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
- Dr. Eleanor Pask, Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation
Canada, Toronto, Ontario
- Ms. Diane Robson, Data Services, Saskatchewan Cancer Foundation,
Regina, Saskatchewan
- Dr. David Tubergen, Division of Pediatrics, The University
of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
We are grateful also to Dr. Isra Levy of Health Canada for comments
on the early draft, to Dr. Christopher Brown of the University of
Calgary for information on bone marrow and stem cell transplants, to Lisa
Paterson who helped us over the summer and to the staff at Camp CanCare
(at Camp Horizon) for allowing us to glimpse moments of joy in the eyes
of their campers. Special thanks go to parents and siblings Lorraine
Beaudoin, Louise Champoux-Paillé, John and Jennifer Jans, Donna Kooistra,
Linda Kwasney, Zella Tangen, and Christine Wandzura for reading
an early draft and letting us know whether this book would meet the needs
of those closest to the problem of cancer in the young.
Finally, to the children, teenagers, parents and others who contributed
their words and images, our thanks for making this book come alive.
The flower with all the petals and leaves on it is the healthy
flower. It has a sad face because it is raining. The wilted, bald
flower is the cancerous flower. It may be a little wilted and
have no petals or leaves but it is happy to be alive even if it
is raining. The healthy flower doesn't know how lucky it is to
be alive and have all its petals. All it's worried about is the
rain. This is true in real life as well. When I was getting my
chemo in the hospital I would listen to what people were complaining
about and I would think "If that's all you have to worry about
then you are doing pretty well." People would act like it were
the end of the world if the fan was blowing too hard on them or
if they would get home in time for dinner but I was worrying about
whether I would get better or would I die? Melinda, age 13
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