Remember, while your child is on treatment, vaccinations or immunisations must not be given. School It is important for your child to continue normal schooling and, for much of the time, there will be no limitation on his activities. Keep the head teacher informed of your child's illness and any side effects of treatment that he should know about. If your child is not immune to measles or chicken pox, ask to be informed when these illnesses are in your child's class. There is no reason why your child should not have treatment and complete his education, even though this may sometimes mean bringing work into hospital or arranging for some periods of home tuition.
Most wards have teachers who give in-patients individual tuition.
Coping with your feelings There is still a great fear of death when cancer is mentioned and most parents react to the diagnosis of their child's cancer in similar ways. They first of all have feelings of shock, fear, numbness and disbelief. They often want to deny that such a thing has happened and may take their child from one doctor to another. As well as shock and disbelief, you may feel guilty. Most parents ask themselves if they could have prevented the cancer from happening.