I drew pictures of Mummy losing her hair and having medicine to make her better
BEFORE she broke the news of her cancer diagnosis to the world last week, the Princess of Wales’ priority was to protect her three children.
It will resonate with other mothers who have faced telling youngsters that they will be away from the family home while they have cancer treatment.
We spoke to two mums whose own experiences of the disease inspired them to write books to help kids understand.
When Lynsey Gregory was diagnosed with leukaemia, she dreaded the impact it would have on her children. Her daughter Tillie was just six months old at the time, but son Theo, then three, was bewildered by the thought of his mother spending weeks in hospital to receive chemotherapy.
“It was such a shock when I had the diagnosis,” says Lynsey, 39. “But my first thought was for the children.
“I totally understand what Kate is going through. I was heartbroken not to be with them during my treatment and my main goal was to protect them throughout it. I was fighting for them.
“I felt I had to pull back and disconnect from the world – just to focus on them and getting them through it.”
Lynsey, a special needs teacher, had been playing netball in November 2018 when she fell during the game and bruises appeared on her body.
She reveals: “The level of bruising was unusual. A week later they still hadn’t gone down.
“I was taking Theo to the doctors and I mentioned it while I was there. He looked at the bruising and sent me for blood tests straight away at the hospital which showed my platelet level was really low, so they repeated the tests.
“A few days later I got a call in the evening from the doctor who told me I had to go straight to A&E.”
Further tests, including a bone marrow biopsy, revealed that Lynsey, from Wigan, Gtr Manchester, had leukaemia. The mum, whose husband Chris, 37, is a testing operator for military machinery, says: “I was reeling with shock when they told me what it was.
“I knew something was wrong but I never imagined it would be cancer.”
Lynsey had to leave the family home for four weeks of intensive chemotherapy. “It was so hard leaving Theo,” she says.
“I took an iPad into hospital with me so I could still say goodnight and read him a bedtime story.
“Then, whenever I had to go in for chemotherapy after those first four weeks, I gave Theo a job so he could feel more involved in my cancer treatment.
“He’d pack my hospital bag with Chris and we started drawing pictures, too, of me as a stick person getting my ‘superhero’ medicine to make me better.
“It was these drawings that really helped him understand what was happening to me.”
The drawings eventually inspired Lynsey to write a book called Mummy Goes to Hospital to explain to children what their mother is going through during cancer treatment.
Lynsey, who had a stem cell transplant in 2019, says: “I wanted to help children understand it as then it becomes easier for them to cope. So I drew pictures of Mummy, and then how Mummy changes, losing her hair, and then wigs which we called ‘magic hair’.
“Then I drew Mummy in her hospital
I could not find anything to help kids when their mum leaves home to go to hospital
LYNSEY GREGORY ON INSPIRATION FOR CANCER DIAGNOSIS BOOK
bed having medicine. The drawings were showing that, even though these things were happening, Mummy was still the same person.”
The book, published in February 2021, has helped lots of children to better understand a cancer diagnosis. Lynsey – whose children are now aged eight and five, says: “When diagnosed, I had wonderful support from charities and there was help for children and other family members.
But I couldn’t find anything that specifically focused on helping children come to terms with why their mummy was leaving to go to hospital.
“We’d just done all these drawings when I was going through treatment to help Theo understand and I realised they could help other children, which is why I wrote the book.”
Now in remission, Lynsey took part in a catwalk show last November for Maggie’s cancer charity, which has support centres across the UK. Lynsey’s book is available in hospitals and any money raised goes to charity.
She adds: “Princess Kate needs to be with her family. She showed great strength speaking out, but she should never have had to do this.
“My whole heart is with her right now and she needs to be left to be with her family to process and begin her journey to overcome this.”