Now, comics to teach kids about cancer

LONDON - Who says comics are meant for fun only? They can be informative too-a new comic book has been written to help parents explain to their children that they have cancer.

“What’s up with Bridget’s Mum?” has been developed by a team of doctors and aims to simplify the medical terminology, making the experience less daunting for families.

The book by Medikidz tries to make the disease more understandable by comparing cancerous cells to cows.

When the cells become cancerous, they turn into “bad” cows that fight. They then multiply and destroy good cells, just like cancer.

Karen Penney from London was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.

As well as having to cope with the news herself and the treatment she would have to go through, she also had to tell her children.

“I thought she was going to die,” Sky News quoted her eight-year-old son Rohan as saying.

“But then Mummy said you would only die if you had a very strong cancer and she said she had a safe cancer,” he added.

Penney said: “It’s a very difficult thing to tell your children because you’re scared yourself and you don’t want to scare them.

“They think about it and then come back to you with more specific questions about breast cancer, like:

‘What is cancer? Why are you having this operation Mummy? Why are you having chemotherapy?’ That is really difficult to explain.”

Rohan added: “It was very useful, especially when the cows acted as cells because they were fighting and it helped me understand a lot more what was going on inside my mum’s breast.” (ANI)