Throughout lockdown, children and teenagers have continued to receive radiotherapy treatment however, we have been restricted in our abilities to support them. We are pleased to share with you that another of our services, designing and personalising radiotherapy masks and moulds, has now resumed and our talented Head of Art, Marina, has been extremely busy catching up with requests. Radiotherapy treatment can be a very traumatic experience for children and having a personalised mask or mould featuring their favourite characters, football teams or likes can help take away some of the fear and, in many cases, lead to greater acceptance of treatment. Recognition of the positive difference this service makes is evident in the increasing demand – since restarting this initiative last month, Marina has completed more than 25 masks and moulds and we now receive requests from paediatric radiotherapy teams across our network of hospital partners on an almost daily basis.
Lovely Amber, aged 10, lives in Kent with her family. However, for the duration of her 30-session treatment at UCLH, she and her mum have moved to London to be close to the hospital. Amber loves art and has been busy creating designs to keep herself motivated and remain positive. Using Amber’s rainbow and lemonade designs as inspiration, Marina personalised her two radiotherapy leg moulds. On seeing the masks for the first time, Amber told her mum, ‘They looked so good. I’m going to keep them forever!’
