CHeer uP ! helping young cancer sufferers fulfil their projects

Pierre Janicot developed cancer when he was in post-secondary preparatory school, preparing for the entrance examination to a Grande Ecole. It was then that he discovered that when one has to fight for a project, one fights best against one's cancer, but that one's environment (medical or social) often induces a negative attitude among patients. Once he was cured, he decided to help other young people, and in 2003 created the association cHeer uP ! with Marc Sudreau, a friend who had given him support during his illness. Small teams help the patient to look to the future by helping him to draw up a personal project, to fix objectives, and to define stages for progress, to set up a help network and to react to his surroundings. It is hoped that his personal doctor will be involved in the project. Today there are three hundred and fifty cHeer uP ! volunteers in France helping four hundred young people. But already there are new challenges such as assisting young people who increasingly receive treatment at home (with the rise in home hospitalisation), and creating structures to maintain the project so that it continues to operate when the founders are no longer students.