We can be heroes: The masks putting children with cancer at ease

A Leeds play specialist has got creative with an imposing piece of equipment – and transformed an intimidating experience

Putting on a radiotherapy mask that covers your face, stretches over your shoulders and fastens to a treatment bed to hold you in place can be a claustrophobic experience for most adults. It’s worse if you are a child unable to understand the vital importance of staying still for targeted treatment.

“The masks are quite scary looking, so in the past when I got them out, the [children’s] first reaction would always be, ‘I don’t need one of those’,” says Lobke Marsden, a play specialist in the radiotherapy department at Leeds children’s hospital.

Children have the chance to become their heroes – and this empowers them and makes them feel special

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Continue reading... January 31, 2018 at 02:00PM