A Letter from Our Founder 

Our Story of Childhood Cancer Survivorship

When I was 8 years old I was diagnosed with leukemia, the most common type of cancer in children. As the first major event in my life, cancer was how I came to know the world and those around me: my friends, family, healthcare team, teachers, and classmates. It was not your typical childhood. Unlike everyone else my age, I had this important part of who I was that made me look and act differently and would make others treat me differently as well. Four long years later when I was told I was cured, there was nothing I wanted more than to be done with cancer — for good. As a family, we wanted to put it behind us, so I could move on, grow up, and be just like everyone else my age. But it’s not that easy, here’s why.
Childhood cancer is completely different than adult cancer. It is cancer that comes at a time in your life when you are developing in every aspect: physically, emotionally, psychologically, and neuro-cognitively. The treatments and traumatic experience of cancer at a young age has profound effects on the way these young people learn, grow, interact socially, and psychologically process experiences for the rest of their lives. On top of that, exposure of their developing bodies to life saving drugs and therapies impacts multiple aspects of our long-term health, our metabolism, organ function, predisposition to diseases and ultimate longevity. There’s even more to the story though.

Further outward, childhood cancer also impacts the social constructs and support networks these young people depend on: their parents, siblings, extended families and friends. All this is because childhood cancer is precisely that—cancer during childhood. Once cured, cancer’s reverberations are felt for life, impacting our future health, education, careers, and relationships.

Thanks to improvements in treatments, over 80% of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer in Canada will be cured. In 2016 alone, there were an estimated 45,000 survivors of childhood cancer living in Canada. With treatment strategies improving at record speeds, this number is only going to grow. Despite their individual challenges, more and more survivors are pursuing higher education, seeking employment, and starting families in an era of increasing competition, scarcity of resources, and rising costs of living.

That’s where we come in. We are Canada’s hub and trusted resource for navigating life as a childhood cancer survivor. We lived it, we understand it, and by sharing our collective experiences we are helping one another through it. With our team of experienced survivors, topic experts, and access to a wide network of healthcare providers, we empower survivors to live their best life possible by providing education, health resources, and a community that finally gets it.

We lived it, we understand it, and by sharing our collective experiences we are helping one another through it. 

At CCSC we know that surviving doesn’t always mean thriving, but we’re here to change that. I invite you to join us in our mission.

Michael Taccone
Founder, Childhood Cancer Survivor Canada

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