Aili was six when she was given an 11 percent chance of survival – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country

Children and cancer. Those are two words parents would rather not hear in the same sentence. But in 1985, the disease struck six-year-old Aili. The six-year-old, who dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer, was training eagerly on the splits when his life was suddenly turned upside down. – I managed the boys split, but when I tried the girls split, something suddenly happened, she says. – Then something popped out. A large tumor. The tumor was the size of an orange. It took her to hospital where she was operated on. Admittedly not for cancer, but for a hernia, as it was first thought. “Unfortunately, it turned out to be malignant cancer,” she says. An excited Aili with a wig on the first day of school. Refusing to give up, Aili Maanum-Jordan was given an 11 percent chance of survival by the doctors. But both she and her parents refused to give up. Today, Aili is almost 45 years old. She is healthy, but the memories of what it was like to grow up as a child with cancer in the 80s remain. – It wasn’t just, just losing your hair. Then you were labeled as different. – I experienced children throwing stones at me because I was different. Several children believed at the time that cancer was contagious, so fortunately we have come so much further now, 38 years later, she says. The encounter with the cancer treatment was tough for Aili, but she eventually recovered. Photo: Privat But back to 1985. Aili was examined for sarcoma at Radiumhospitalet. A form of cancer that gave a poor prognosis at the time. Fortunately, that has since changed. The six-year-old girl had to go through tough treatment with chemotherapy and radiation. – I knew that you could die of cancer, because I experienced that around me. Sometimes the treatment was very harsh. My parents have subsequently told me that I said that “now I can’t take it anymore, now I want to die”. – It was especially the chemotherapy treatments that my child’s body tolerated terribly poorly. I lay for several days and vomited. I had no more strength, but luckily I was able to turn it around. As an adult, Aili Maanum-Jordan eventually became a project manager at the Cancer Society. She hopes research will give hope to those with cancer that has spread. What motivated her Aili Maanum-Jordan says that her parents never told her about the doctors’ prognosis. Instead, they did what was in their power to motivate her to continue treatment. – For every chemotherapy treatment I had to go through, I was promised a new barbie doll, she says smiling. – I guess I was the girl where I lived who had the most barbie dolls. The stay at Radiumhospitalet was a period full of contrasts for the six-year-old. Many other children died during the time she was a patient. But she also has many good memories from this period. – We rattled around in wheelchairs, she remembers. – I was lucky enough to get my own tricycle, and I used it frequently to run away from these doctors. I actually got that tricycle 15 years ago. The leisure leader had taken care of it to give it to me in adulthood as a symbol of having managed the fight against cancer. Aili on the red bicycle she was given at Radiumhospitalet. Photo: Privat Around 200 people Eva Widing has been a pediatric oncologist for several decades. She has followed the research and developments in childhood cancer for a long time. Widing is currently retired as an oncologist, but is active as a board member of the Brain Tumor Association. She says that what is referred to as childhood cancer affects around 200 people between the ages of 0 and 18 each year. – We are talking about rare diseases, she says. Today, approximately 35,000 people get cancer in Norway each year, but childhood cancer constitutes a very large group of this – As it stands today, approximately 85 percent survive in total, but there is a large spread between the various forms of childhood cancer, she emphasizes . Now that Aili Maanum-Jordan has recovered, she has taken up the fight against cancer through a job as project manager at the Cancer Society. This week the fundraiser “Krafttak mot kreft” is being held, and her hope is that research will give hope to those with cancer that has spread. – A little more time, that means everything. Research and research breakthroughs in medicines can help more people and can adapt cancer treatment to each individual. It is my dream, she says. Cancer in children Around 200 children and young people between the ages of 0 and 18 are affected by cancer each year. The overall survival rate for childhood cancer in Norway is approximately 85 per cent. Fortunately, cancer in children and young people is rare. There are four different forms of cancer that most frequently affect children: Leukemia Brain tumors Other solid tumors Lymphomas Source: The Norwegian Cancer Society



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