Some things can be hard to explain to children about life, but one thing that can cause a lot of pain and anxiety is telling them their parent has cancer.
The council has launched a one year cancer awareness campaign and is highlighting the effects of cancer, including how families deal with the diagnosis and where support comes from.
The campaign is currently focussing on how families deal with cancer, whether it is an adult or a child who is going through the diagnosis.
Many people diagnosed with cancer have children, or children in their lives such as nieces, nephews, grandchildren, great grandchildren, godchildren or the children of friends.
As children get older they are able to understand more about illness and treatment, but younger children may struggle to understand why mummy is always ill, why daddy can’t play right now or why grandma is always at the hospital.
Being open and honest is almost always the best way with children and it’s important to listen to their fears:
A doctor, nurse or counsellor can help give advice on how to handle this situation.
Children only need simple explanations and may need to have these explanations repeated as they try to take in the changes.
If it comes up, it’s important to reassure children that they are in no way to blame for what has happened and they do not need to feel guilty about it. A parent’s illness is not related to the child’s behaviour.
John Skidmore, director for adults, health and customer services at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: "It's important to know that support is available for people going through this tough time and that there is advice on hand for delicate issues, such as telling a child about a diagnosis.
"With support from partner health organisations in the East Riding, the council is helping people manage cancer by raising awareness of it and offering support to those who need it."
For more information on cancer support, visit www.happyandwell.me
This site uses cookies to store information on your computer, such as enabling login; remembering items, status or progress of an order or request; storing user selected preferences such as default centre; anonymously monitoring site volumes with Google Analytics; as well as for tracking social media or search engine adverts. This allows us to provide basic site functions, to assess performance and evaluate user behaviour, and to continually improve your online experience.
Your cookie settings will be used across all East Riding of Yorkshire Council and council administrated partnership sites, unless otherwise stated. Your preferences are stored for 365 days, and can be updated in the settings tab or on our Cookie Information page.
Accept More optionsSome cookies are used for social media and search engine advertisements, which enable us to assess performance and ensure cost effective service delivery. You can accept all or refuse advertising cookies below. Our Cookie Information page provides further details on blocking cookies within your browser, or through other services, whether just for our site, or for other sites as well.
Refusing advertising cookies does NOT disable adverts, but just restricts targeted ads. Accept RefuseBelow is a current list of sites which will use your cookie preferences. As sites, which are managed by East Riding of Yorkshire Council, come online or are decommissioned, the list will update, and can be viewed any time on the Cookie Information page. Your preferences will be applied to any new site that we manage, that match the same cookie configuration as the other sites in the list when you set your preference.
A list of cookies used on the sites that East Riding of Yorkshire Council manage, are available on the Cookie Information page