The interactions between the parents of a child with cancer and their extended family are complex. Potential exists for loving support and generous help as well as for bitter disappointment and disputes. The diagnosis of cancer creates a ripple effect first touching the immediate family, then extended family, friends, coworkers, schoolmates, church members, and the entire community.
Parents are usually surprised at the diversity of coping abilities exhibited.
Extended family members sometimes drop their own lives to rush to the side of the child with cancer and often remain steadfast for the years of treatment. Regrettably, family members may not be helpful, either from ignorance of what is helpful or simply because they are overwhelmed by events in their own lives. Notifying the family Notifying relatives is one of the first painful jobs for the parent of a child diagnosed with cancer. In times of crisis, family is refuge, and the news is usually quickly shared. She called my other sister, and together they told my frail mother.