Our story

We are DAZU, a small children's charity.

We are putting together a project to help and support children affected by cancer. We aim to provide the children a place to come where they can access counselling, mindfulness and other therapies as well as a break from their daily life and connecting with other children in similar situations.

Why do this?

DAZU has been approached by a cancer charity that focuses on the adults affected by cancer, but could not offer children support. This means that the whole family could not get support, leaving the children going through similar traumas as the adults in their families alone.

We have found that it is often the children that are left alone and confused in these situations because other family members are trying to deal with their issues around the situation and feel leaving the children out of it is protecting them. It may also be that parents and carers just don't know how to talk and deal with the issues that children are experiencing. It can be a very difficult, painful and confusing time for all the people concerned.

As a children's charity we are in a much better position to offer the children the help and support they need, helping them through their trauma and taking some of the load off the, already, stressed shoulders of their parents/carers.

What are we going to do?

We will be offering regular meetings for the children where they will be able to access counsellors as well as group sessions which will allow them to share their worries, concerns and issues with therapists and others.

The children will be able to take advantage of Mindfulness classes which will help them to live their life in the present and not worry and be anxious about the future all the time. The classes will offer the children a way to lessen the negative affects of their situations.

We believe that we need to treat the children holistically and recognise that they are children and that they deserve to have fun and be children. So there will also be more fun things to do, such as boxercise and hand massages, as well as making friends and not feeling isolated.

Isolation is a big issue for children in these situations and they are often Young Carers, which can be difficult for children to share with others for a variety of reasons. What we are doing will bring them into a community that shares their experiences and includes them rather than them feeling guarded and isolated, they will not be alone.