and so, it begins . . .

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February 7th, 2014

Three years ago, my life took a sharp turn and veered off on a new trajectory.  In the moment, I heard the words 'it is cancer' I had two thoughts, almost simultaneously, "that sucks" and "how will I tell my girls".  So, began a journey.

Back in 2014 there were limited resources and next to nothing in the digital world.  

o   Rethink Breast Cancer had created a downloadable guide for parents (specifically moms).  Avery helpful guide, this was definitely a parent focused resource.

o   Many well-meaning friends and family offered up children’s’ storybooks. Some books would promise recovery and others would discuss death.  However, I was dancing in the middle, not wanting to make promises I was not sure I could keep but also not wanting to bring up the death card.  I had not been told my situation was dire, yet.

o   Sunnybrook offered consultation with a therapist.  A helpful but intense experience but not a parent to child interaction.

o   CBCF offered a booklet in which there was a section on speaking with children.  Again, very helpful information but very adult in language.

Nowhere was there an online resource for children.  In fact, very few of the resources were tools to help parents and children build a new conversation together.

Fast forward three years and I am now healthy and entering a new phase of my life as an interactive media professional.  With the digital landscape laid out in front of me, naturally, I want to create the exact resource I dreamt of and searched for in those confusing and stressful days following diagnosis.

The Concept

There are now a number of digital resources for speaking with children.  Rethink has expanded their resources to include a child’s guide as well as a series of videos geared for children.  There are also multiple parent resources online.  However, there is still nothing that brings this all together and provides an interactive experience for the parent and the child to share and learn together.

So, what am I going to create you ask?  I am going to build an interactive narrative website.  I will create a story that users can follow based on their own needs. 

Treatment plans and outcomes vary wildly based on diagnosis type, age, needs, so many things.  A single narrative path would not meet everyone’s needs.  The narrative of the website will be designed in a series of modules that can be viewed in the order you want.  The parent and child will have control.

Speaking of control, the entire experience will be geared towards helping children to feel empowered.  Let’s give them a space to fight the bad cells, a space to draw out their frustrations, or some tips on how to help out mom.

Diagnosis is a scary time.  I want to make an experience to help out with one little piece of that.  I want to make an experience that will be useful throughout the entire journey.  From start to who knows where . . .

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