Having your child being diagnosed with cancer is THE most surreal experience. A colossal mountain of emotions hits you all at once, I was in denial for sure and wondered if this is really happening to my child, but the worst for me was the inability to help and make her better (I think every parents natural instinct).

Looking back, the first weeks after the diagnosis was an emotional rollercoaster and Clic Sargent was able to help me and my partner to cope and to bring back normality and direction in our life. 

One thing I struggled with a lot was to tell people what had happened, because saying it out loud makes is suddenly real and Clic Sargent again helped me through this.

Clic Sargent also helped us with explaining to Alexandra what had happened and why she wasn't able to go to nursery, or play with her friends. Why she had to have so many doctors prodding, putting needles in her and operations and why her hair was falling out.

Regarding the hair loss, actually Clic Sargent gave me a book for Alex which told the story of a little girl with the exact same cancer that Alex had, explaining the journey from diagnosis, chemo, operation and post chemo/radiotherapy.

I remember reading the page where Lucy the girl in the book lost all of her hair and Alex got really angry and upset that she didn't want this to happen to her. However, having the book we were able to talk about it and over time to accept it and embrace not having any hair, now she is totally rocking it!

Clic Sargent also helped us with material that we could give to Alex's school, and for them to show the class so they understand why Alex didn't have any hair or was absent a lot. That helped Alex massively and made her feel empowered rather than feeling ashamed because she looked different.

Other things CS helped us with were things that are not so obvious. I am lucky to work for a company that was compassionate throughout, however there are parents out there who are not so lucky and Clic Sargent is helping them with financial support when one or both parents can no longer work due to their child's illness, as well as help with documents to get Disability Allowance  for example, or documents for schools etc. Having to deal with authorities at this time is probably the least thing that one should be worrying about.

They also connected us with other families in our area who also had to go through childhood cancer and a social community specifically for dads (Mind the chaps) who in this time may struggle even more so to come to terms with their child's diagnosis.

CS work with other charities together to grant wishes for children with cancer, or make special t-shirts for the portacath access which most children have to get their chemo or personalised superhero converse shoes from Supershoes. 

What I am explaining may be small things but these small things add up and become the fuel that keeps you going. I also want to point out, without taking anything away from Alex's cancer journey, we are one of the lucky ones by a long stretch. There are parents and children that get told their cancer is terminal or so rare that conventional chemo may not help and for these families Clic Sargent is there to support them emotionally and financially through the toughest time in their life. 

If you read until here, I do hope this gives you enough evidence that the team at Clic Sargent are worthy of every penny we help them raise for families who have a child that has been diagnosed with cancer.

Lots of love

Silks x