SAGAY CITY – A first of its kind camp has brought children in Negros Occidental with cancer and those with parents afflicted by it together to share their fears, find support and rediscover fun.

The Suntown Camp that began Saturday at Maryrshore in Talisay City and ends today with 30 children participating is the first in the world designed to bring these two types of children together, Dr. Marvie Abesamis, who along with Millie Kilayko co-directs the camp, said.

Abesamis, a nationally renowned oncologist and chairperson of the Kapisanan ng May K sa Pilipinas, said camps that have been held in the past only involved children with cancer.

It is important to also involve children with a parent who has cancer because nobody is really taking care of their pain, she said.

If a mother has cancer, the father is preoccupied with caring for the patient and the children are left out because the parents think they are too young to be involved with what is happening, Abesamis said.

By making children aware of the disease, they will overcome the feeling of helplessness, develop strength to enable them to move on and know it is okay to still have fun, Dr. Estrella “Yanky” Agustin, chair of the University of Philippines Department of Family Life and Child Development and one of the assistant camp directors, said.

The camp also helps children living through cancer become aware that they are not alone, Agustin said.

Usually children living through cancer are told by their friends in school to be strong, but at the camp the people they meet allow them to cry and express their fears, she said.

On the first day of camp a worried Jelly Ann Agudo, 17, of Bago City wept and it took camp volunteers some time to coax her into telling them what was troubling her.

Agudo, whose father is a farmer, was crying because her mother, Melinda, 43, has breast cancer and they do not have any money for her chemotherapy.

I want my mother to get well but we do not have the means to help her, Agudo said.

For so long she has kept her worries to herself, she was glad to have been able to cry and tell others at the camp how she feels, Agudo said.

The camp poet Sky Luke Rodriguez, 16, who has leukemia, yesterday wrote: “When you say I love you, you are prepared to give up and risk everything, and to suffer and endure every single pain that comes your way when you start loving that person.”

A RARE DAY OF FUN

The Suntown Camp participants yesterday were brought to the Museo sang Bata sa Negros in Sagay City , an interactive museum that enables children to learn about marine life and the preservation of the environment.

The museum trip brought smiles to Lera Ayhen Tingson, 8, and Kassandra Dampitan, 9, whose mother and grandmother, respectively, are suffering from breast cancer. A frail-looking Tingson rolled on a giant fish and Dampitan hugged a huge polyp in a rare chance for them to put their worries aside and be children again.

Dampitan's mother died and her father was jailed, camp organizers said, leaving her in the sole care of her ailing grandmother.

Lorenz Mapiscay, 12, of 14 th Street in Bacolod City , said his mother has had cancer for a year and his wish is for her to be happy. But being at the camp was a treat for him, he said, because it meant his not having to carry heavy cans of water for a couple of days.

SIMPLE WISHES

Joel Berden, 8, who has had leukemia since 2002, said he was not well, he was still undergoing chemotherapy. Berden, a son of a welder from Barangay Mandalagan, Bacolod City , told the camp volunteers his wish was to eat lechon.

In Sagay City his face lit up when volunteers led him to the lechon he wanted at lunch time.

Cancer patient Renxon Soriba, 8, said his wish was to go to Lopue's East Center in Bacolod City so yesterday camp volunteer Mika Lopue promised to take him there.

Mia Angela Hulleza, 19, said her cancer after three years has recurred and she had just underwent chemotherapy but she was happy to be at the camp. It is fun, I like to go places, she said.

Assumption Class '65 alumnae yesterday also flew in from Manila to set up a Christmas tree and giant snowman as a surprise for the children at Maryshore last night. They also gave the children presents and danced with them.

The children's wants and wishes are so simple and uncomplicated, it does not take much to make them happy, Dr. Alvin Parreño, a Bacolod pediatrician and one of the camp's assistant directors, said.

VOLUNTEERISM LAUDED

He said the camp is a start but support groups will have to be created to carry on the work for the children in the future.

Also lending their expertise to the camp are Dr. Isabel Melgar of the Department of Psychology of Ateneo de Manila University and museum curator Lilibeth Cordova, who are also assistant directors of the camp.

Agustin and Abesamis said they are inspired and touched by the spirit of volunteerism of Negrenses at the Suntown Camp that they have not seen in other areas.

The volunteers are overflowing, they have popular and political will, they said.

In the Bible this is what you call burden sharing, people should not be left to carry the load alone, Agustin said.

Suntown Camp 1 is just the first of a series of activities which will be organized for children affected by cancer, Kilayko said.

“Those who gave their time, talent and treasures towards the fulfillment of the camps' objectives are vignettes of the true love of God transported into human experience,” she said.*CPG

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