Not only do parents of a newly diagnosed child have to deal with the shocking news of cancer: they also need to land quickly on their feet to master a whole new world: hospital rules, a complicated lingo, life habits turned upside down. In the meantime, they must adapt fast because many important treatment decisions must be taken within the very first days of diagnosis.

Research demonstrates that children whose parents understand their child's treatment and ask more questions tend to have a better outcome - in terms of quality of life, reduction of trauma and long-term side effects caused by their treatment.

KickCancer decided to help families navigate the cancer storm. We put together a team of expert patients, trained to take some perspective on their own experience. They identified the information they wished they had received during their own or their child's treatment and they gathered their best pieces of advice in “MY COMPANION - support kit”. The information ranges from: a glossary on cancer to high-level explanations on what cancer is, including tips and tricks for the family's daily life and examples of medical questions that they may want to ask at the successive steps of treatment.

MY COMPANION does not only include "static information" but also a notebook, a treatment tracker to make the complex medical information more reachable for newly diagnosed patients. It also includes a fun DYI component so that the kit can be "owned" by the parents and their child.

MY COMPANION is a practical instrument designed to make information appealing and readable for patients, but also handy and practical to be taken along for every hospital appointment. It gathers all the paperwork by topic in one single location (hospital registration, blood test results…). The case can welcome the family’s tablet, or the liaison notebook used in some hospitals. Cherry on the cake: there are some fun props hidden in the pockets too… nice drawings and masking tape to decorate the hospital room with photographs or schoolmates’ drawings.

Since December 2023, MY COMPANION has been distributed to every new family and every family undergoing treatment in all Belgian paediatric oncology units.