When you learn your child has cancer, you want them to receive the best treatment and care.
You need support, too.
Cancer Hope Network, a national nonprofit organization in Chester, has long done that for adult cancer patients and their caregivers by providing personalized, one-on-one peer mentorship support.
Last week, the group launched Hopeful Hearts: Parents Supporting Parents — a peer mentor program that has been specifically designed to meet the unique needs and concerns of parents whose children are facing cancer.
Hopeful Hearts connects parents facing pediatric and adolescent cancer with other parents whose children are cancer survivors to offer emotional support and optimism.
Beth Blakey, the executive director and chief operating officer of Cancer Hope Network, said the group created Hopeful Hearts because it recognized parents of pediatric cancer patients were in need of additional support.
She said the new initiative connects parents with trained peer mentors who have successfully navigated their own child’s cancer diagnosis and post-treatment survivorship.
“While some hospitals offer parental support programs, not all of them do,” she said. “Our key point of difference is that we provide parental support regardless of the hospital where a child is being treated and it is our deep understanding of the cancer caregiver experience that has informed our commitment to such a program because there is no one who better understands the situation than someone who has walked in those shoes.”
Hopeful Hearts is powered by a family funder who is passionate about helping families that are on a pediatric cancer journey.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 15,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer in the United States each year. The parents of these children facing cancer have unique needs and fears that can have significant mental health impacts. According to results published in JAMA Network Open, parents of children with cancer are 31.3% more likely to visit a clinician for a mental health-related concern including anxiety and depression than parents of children without cancer.
“Our Hopeful Hearts peer mentors will provide parents navigating the challenges of their child’s cancer journey with the comfort of shared experiences, emotional support and guidance,” Blakey said. “Our goal is to empower parents to advocate for their child during treatment, while also encouraging them to get the strength and support they need to better cope.”
Cancer Hope Network offers all Peer Mentors free training to help them feel comfortable and ready to offer understanding and compassion. To become a Hopeful Hearts Peer Mentor volunteer, you must be the parent or guardian of a pediatric cancer survivor who has been at least one year out of active treatment.
If your child is currently facing cancer and you want compassionate, free, hospital-independent one-on-one peer mentorship, you can register for Hopeful Hearts here.
