Now this sounds like a show I want my kids to watch. In two weeks, Nickelodeon will premier "The Face of Courage: Kids Living With Cancer" on Sunday, January 17th at 8pm (ET/PT). Children diagnosed with cancer share their stories on "Nick News With Linda Ellerbee".
The new show explores what life is like for children facing cancer. "All of these kids live as if the cancer were never coming back," says Ellerbee, herself an 18-year cancer survivor. "Cancer is a part of my past. That's a fact. It's a part of my present because I choose to speak about it, and for the same reason, it will be a part of my future. But it is not who I am. It is not who any of us is."
Some of the stories that will be shown include 14-year-old Alexandra who lost her leg to bone cancer. Her cancer is currently in remission and she is learning to use her "bionic" leg. Then there’s Tatyana, who, at 11, made a video to document her treatment for her friends to help them understand what she was going through.
Hector, 14, suffers from a soft tissue cancer that affected an eye socket. “They had to remove my eye or else I was going to die. So they told me to make a choice,” says Hector. Hector worried that losing an eye would make him too different from other kids, but being in a cancer ward gave him a new perspective. “It made me realize that it wasn’t only me. The world was full with kids with cancer.”
Far too many, I’m afraid.
