New Web site offers hope, help to young cancer survivors
MADISON, Wisc., September 1998 -- Childhood cancer patients, long-term survivors and their families will find help, hope, and a place for personal expression in "Outlook: Life Beyond Childhood Cancer," a new Internet site dedicated to this burgeoning group of cancer survivors.
A young cancer survivor led the University of Wisconsin-Madison team which created the site (www.outlook-life.org). Visitors will find detailed information on issues faced during and long after treatment, including insurance and financial information, health concerns, and school and job issues.
Current and former patients can use the site to create a Web page linked to a searchable database. They also are invited to contribute cancer-related stories and poems, or to describe the impact of the disease on themselves, their families and their friends.
Kelly Cotter, 22, who coordinated the project for the UW Medical School Biomedical Computing Group, has kept active in cancer awareness and research fundraising since finishing treatment for leukemia 10 years ago. The site was created "to help survivors and their families become their own advocate," Cotter says, but others will also find the site informative.
"Patients who are currently undergoing treatment can find support in Outlook by meeting survivors who represent the light at the end of the tunnel," she says. "Within the personal stories section, you can witness strength, resiliency and love for life."
Outlook debuted in September during a reunion of 200 childhood cancer survivors on the UW-Madison campus. The site is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, UW Children's Hospital, the National Network for Family Resiliency and the UW Medical School Biomedical Computing Group. Its development team includes faculty from the university's schools of nursing, medicine and human ecology; clinicians from UW Hospitals & Clinics' departments of human resources, pediatric oncology, psychiatry, psychology and social work; and specialists with the National Cancer Institute's Region 11 Cancer Information Service and the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center. Outlook was selected as a Hot Site in the Sept. 8 edition of USA TODAY Online.
Childhood cancer is one of the most dramatic success stories in cancer treatment and research. Eight in 10 children survive cancer today, a drastic improvement over the one in four who survived 25 years ago.
NOTE TO WASHINGTON REPORTERS: Project director Kelly Cotter will be attending "The March: Coming Together to Conquer Cancer," a rally in support of cancer research on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Sept. 26.
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