A listening ear and
a comforting presence
Leucan provides financial and emotional support to families of children with cancer
Leucan is a listening ear, a comforting presence, an absolutely essential support as strong emotions inhabit the parents and relatives of children with cancer. The Shaved Head Challenge is a major fundraising event and a gesture of support that engages the community, in a spirit of solidarity, to provide services to families of children with cancer.
The organization provides financial assistance to support and assist families through various funds and grants. In 2015-2016, $760,817 was given to Leucan families to enable them to focus their energies on what really matters, the healing of their child.
It is reassuring. It is comforting. Knowing Leucan is present in the hospital and that, in addition, it funds research that will help sick children through the many treatments, it gives hope.
While clinical research is a fundamental component of quality of care for children with cancer, it is not funded by the state. To fill this gap, Leucan is the main funder and principal sponsor of clinical trials. Clinical research helps to better understand the mechanisms of cancer growth and how to reduce side effects and after-effects caused by treatments, while delivering the best existing treatment protocols and contributing to improve the chances of recovery of children with cancer.
The Leucan Information Centre aims to meet the needs of parents and pediatric oncology patients to learn more about cancer in children, all forms of treatment, the illness side effects and its impact on the family.
Support and accompaniment services for families include emotional support, with socio-recreational activities, playrooms in hospitals, massage therapy services and school awareness. Leucan also offers assistance to children who were able to overcome the disease or those in the terminal stage, as well as bereavement support.
Families can benefit from direct financial assistance through various funding programs and grants, including a diagnostic allocation to all families whose child is newly diagnosed, a monthly healthcare access allocation to cover the costs of travel and accommodation, a grant for bone marrow transplant to cover the costs of prolonged hospitalization and a grant in case of relapse when the child has to start treatments again. Financial aid may also be granted in the event of life ending, based on the needs assessment.
Moreover, Leucan provides a post-treatment support program for young people who have had childhood cancer and are suffering from residual signs following treatment. A selection committee analyzes requests twice a year, depending on availability of funds.
Since its inception, Leucan has seen the cure and survival rate of children rise from 15% to 82%, a promising and hopeful increase.
In Canada, childhood cancer is responsible for more deaths than any other disease between the ages of one and adolescence. In Quebec, each year nearly one case per day is diagnosed. Even though the advances in treatment in recent years have brought the survival rate up to 82%, 70% of children who survive cancer will develop aftereffects, and for 30%, these residual signs represent severe problems.
In 2015-2016, Leucan contributed $745,000 to paediatric oncology centres in Quebec, and since its foundation in 1978, the association has paid more than $14.4 million for clinical research. Leucan thereby asserts its participation in improving the quality of care and helps increase the cure and survival rate of children treated for cancer, Incidently, the latter has risen from 15% to 82%, a promising and hopeful increase.
A Shaved Head Challenge right in our community – at Alexis Nihon shopping centre
This year, Alexis Nihon shopping centre will host the Shaved Head Challenge on Thursday, September 22, from 12 pm to 3 pm at the metro level. as a participant or as a donor to this cause, which helps some 300 Quebec families get various support and respite services each year.
Alexis Nihon is owned and managed by Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust, that hosted and helped make a number of Shaved Head Challenges possible throughout Quebec. The company continues to support the cause and encourages its employees to get involved with the event.
Images: Caroline Arbour and Thibault Carron
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