On the Alienation and isolation engendred from the notion of "Cancer"

“Cancer engenders immediate fear. I think that deep in our soul, we don’t want to admit to the possibility that we might have it too. So when someone else gets cancer, we turn that person into an ‘other.’ If that person is ‘other than us,’ then maybe it won’t happen to us. For the past thirty years, I’ve done everything I can to keep children from feeling like an ‘other.’ Yes, this child has cancer. But this child is a normal kid. Alongside their illness, they are dealing with demons that the average adult has never faced. So not only must we heal them, we must also never let them feel ‘less good’ or ‘less worthwhile.’ Because if we disrupt their ability to relate to the world, then the cancer will define the rest of their life.” ----------------------------------------------------------Over the past eight days, we’ve raised over one million dollars to help Dr. O’Reilly and his team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center fight pediatric cancer. While most of the money will go to crucial research, one-third of the funds will go toward providing the psychosocial services that treat the ‘whole child.’ If you haven’t already, please consider donating. Link in bio.

A photo posted by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on May 14, 2016 at 4:59pm PDT