Cancer affects not only the patients who have it, but the rest of the family. A parent's cancer diagnosis is a blow to any child, but it can be much harder for younger children. They are the ones who are most vulnerable, especially if they might not easily understand how debilitating and fatal the disease can be.
Enter Camp Kesem, the site where children with parents battling cancer can seek respite, comfort and perhaps even some answers about dealing with the disease of their mom or dad. Camp Kesem, which comes from the word "magic" in Hebrew, is spread out all over the country with some 63 chapters. The camp provides free activities and stay for the children for a week. They accept children of cancer patients between the ages of 6 to 16 years old, per Onco Link.
At the camp, kids are given fun activities that let kids be, but they are also provided counseling, if they need it. Student volunteers help the kids around, while licensed therapists and medical nurses are part of the staff. However, Dispatch notes that therapy isn't the primary purpose of Camp Kesem, although discussions during group sessions might touch on aspects like this. Most of the time, the kids are encouraged to have fun, free from the worries that a parent is weak, sickly and suffering from the side effects of medication.
A pretty fantastic way to start the week. Camp Kesem is feature on CNN . com (Please share!) https://t.co/fCC6txkcml
— Camp Kesem (@CampKesem) June 20, 2016
Abigail Yates and her sister, Sophie, has been attending Camp Kesem since 2005, after learning that their father has a rare blood disease. The idea to join came from their mother, Jennifer, and their experience at the magic camp has been a growth process, so to speak.
Now, Abigail is herself a counselor at one of the chapters of Camp Kesem, She's paying things forward and helping kids who are going through the same things as she did. "We were all given this beautiful gift of a common understanding and a group of people that were really a family for life," she said per CNN.
Sam Stanley is also a long-time Camp Kesem participant who has now become one of its pious fund raisers. "I clean a lot of my own skeletons out of my closet while working at Camp Kesem," he told Dispatch.
He found comfort in being part of something that not many kids experience. It's at camp where he was able to overcome all of the struggles of being a child of a parent with cancer. Learn more about Camp Kesem in video below:
