Join us in Raising Money for Kids with Cancer!
Do you want to give back to an organization that is important to you but don’t know where to begin?
Individual, community, school and corporate events in support of POGO make a big impact in the lives of children and youth with cancer, survivors and their families.
Celebrate a milestone, host a sporting event, fundraise at your school, plan a social event, create a team challenge at your office or add a fundraising component to an existing event — there are so many options!
The funds you raise provide financial assistance to families so they can pay for out-of-pocket costs associated with their child’s treatment, support survivors with customized school and work counselling when their disease or its treatment has left them with learning challenges and fund promising research that examines the impact of childhood cancer and its treatment.
Get started today with our easy-to-use fundraising platform. Reach out to events@pogo.ca with any questions or for help getting started!
Related Content
Virtual Counselling to Help Childhood Cancer Survivors
A conversation about the mental health of childhood cancer survivors with registered psychotherapist Carly Fleming.
Q: How are the mental health needs of childhood cancer survivors unique?
A: Individuals who experience cancer as a child often carry the pieces of this experience with them into adulthood. This could be in the form of lasting physical pain/impairments or emotional trauma resulting from their treatment. They may also experience worry and anxiety about their future health, grief from losing friends to childhood cancer and guilt that they survived, or changes in family dynamics that came about as a result of their cancer. This is all a heavy load to carry. Often in childhood or the teen years, they aren’t emotionally ready to process the enormity of these things. But once adulthood arrives, the true weight and gravity of childhood experiences can come to light, resulting in mental health challenges. Survivors often feel that there is something wrong with them if they are still struggling years after being “cured.” Each person will experience things differently, but it makes sense that childhood cancer survivors may need to work through the emotional issues they are facing in order to live life to the fullest.
Q: What do you think healthcare teams can do to help their patients’ mental health?
A: The answer to this is simple. Ask good questions. Of course, asking good questions isn’t as easy as it may seem. When we ask good questions, we are open to any answers, not just the ones we predict or want to hear. When we ask good questions, we try to stay away from yes/no responses and leave room for complex, nuanced answers. When we ask good questions, we recognize that there may be uncomfortable silences, or the answers may make us feel uncomfortable, and that’s ok. When we ask good questions, we lead with curiosity.
Q: What has changed about counselling during COVID-19?
A: Before COVID-19, we had the technology to offer virtual counselling but rarely used it. In the past year, the vast majority of mental health services have gone virtual, forcing clinicians and clients to adjust quickly. I think the most significant change has been in our attitudes towards virtual counselling. We used to look at it as a second option, a sub-optimal choice when in-person meetings weren’t possible. This means some clinicians and clients weren’t fully bought into the idea of counselling this way. Now that we have been forced to adapt quickly to this modality, we have seen the good things about in-person counselling happen virtually. Plus, we are able to connect with people who live far away or have difficulty travelling to in-person settings. From the standpoint of counselling, the pandemic has created incredible opportunities to connect in ways that make it far less burdensome for our clients.
Q: Do you prefer virtual counselling? What are the challenges when treating a childhood cancer survivor virtually instead of in person?
A: It can take a little longer to establish a new relationship between counsellor and client online. Without the in-person connection, we sometimes have to work harder and be more patient before the wonderful feeling of connection arrives. This can be problematic when the client feels apprehensive about meeting with a counsellor. Arranging a few shorter meetings to get through the initial “meet and greet” or intake questions can help. Making sure we take time to make a connection in non-clinical terms is also really important. Just some simple chatting about their life and sharing of some common ground can make a huge difference. Another challenge is ensuring the client’s full attention to the online meeting. When we used to meet in person, clients would come into our office and have very few other demands/distractions. Now that clients connect with us from their homes/offices/cars, there are many other demands on their attention. Vulnerability is compromised when they aren’t in a private, quiet space.
Q: What do you mean by vulnerability?
A: To truly explore what is meaningful to an individual, we need to get them to take down their defences. Many survivors put on a brave face, but that is not where the healing and transformation occur. Vulnerability is essential to good mental health care.
Q: At POGO AfterCare Education Day, what do you hope to convey in your session?
A: I hope to convey optimism about how the move to virtual counselling during the pandemic is an opportunity to create more accessible mental health care for childhood cancer survivors. I want to share some of the experiences and insights that I have gathered after the past year of providing virtual psychotherapy. Lastly, I plan to highlight some specific safety measures to ensure we are ready to help our clients should we identify in a virtual appointment that their safety may be at risk.
I am looking forward to learning from the other presenters about their experience in providing care to childhood cancer survivors over this challenging year.
Carly Fleming is a Registered Psychotherapist and founder of everwell Integrated Health Professionals, a virtual counselling group in Hamilton, Ontario, offering a range of services to guide meaning and healing. She has worked as a counsellor in private practice and various healthcare settings for over 15 years, specializing in grief and loss, parenting, coping with illness, and life transitions.
You can hear from Carly first-hand at the 2021 POGO AfterCare Education Day, where she will be presenting with Pediatric Psychologist, Sara Ahola-Kohut about Optimizing Online Mental Health Counselling for Childhood Cancer Survivors.
Cadillac Fairview Run raises $250K for kids with cancer
Thank you to the families and friends who came out to support POGO and The Hospital for Sick Children!
On Sunday, April 26th, the 11th annual Cadillac Fairview 5K Run/Walk took place at its new venue at Shops at Don Mills.
Every year, this family-friendly event is a great way to take in the outdoors and support childhood cancer care. With both 5km and 1km routes, there is something for everyone.
In 2015, the Cadillac Fairview 5K Run/Walk raised over $250,000 for POGO and the Hospital for Sick Children, which goes towards essential programs for children with cancer, including counselling programs for survivors and financial support for families. Melissa Vella spoke about her experience as a young childhood cancer patient
Cadillac Fairview, a longstanding partner with POGO, is committed to supporting the communities in which it operates. Each year, they invite their friends – business partners, tenants, consumers, and employees – to participate in a meaningful and fun morning of physical activity and community engagement.
