NYCI Child Protection Programme

On Friday June 21^st 2012 I took part in “ NYCI Child Protection Training “ in The Carmichael Centre on North Brunswick Street in Dublin. This training is a requirement of becoming “ a leader “ for the Irish teenage cancer support group called “ Canteen Ireland “ The group aims to offer support, care, friendship and love to people between the ages of 13 to 25 who have gone through or are currently undergoing treatment for various forms of cancer.. Please check out their website www.canteen.ie

The group was instrumental in making me the man I am today. After my illness they helped me to come to terms with the event, move on, live my life, make friends have fun and as we Irish say “ have the craic “ I’ve had great times I’ll always remember with the friends I’ll never forget. The group organises events, day trips and weekends away for them. I’ve made friends for life there and unfortunately lost lots along the way. There’s no doubt in my mind that without them and the wonderful wonderful work they do you wouldn’t be reading this right now and there would be no website as I would’ve been but a shadow of a man who felt like a victim and resented what happened and what was taken away from me for the rest of my life and I wouldn’t have looked on The Bright Side Of Life. But you know what, I’m not resentful of any of that and see what happened to me and the challenges I face on a daily basis as a blessing not a curse given to me for a reason and as I said but a few lines back Canteen were instrumental in helping me and giving me the sense of tumour (lol) to face my challenges head on. I do however have one regret about Canteen Ireland, and that is that I didn’t join sooner as I only went to my first meeting aged 19 (2 years after discharge) and had to leave as a member last year upon turning 25.

Key to Canteen Ireland’s success are its band of volunteers  known as leaders, some cancer survivors, former member, some not and the others, well they’re just people with a lot of love to give and who want to help their fellow man. Upon leaving  the group and after a hiatus of 1 ½ + years former members have the opportunity to return as a leader and do what others had done for them. So now I’m going to train and follow the necessary steps to become a leader and if I’m able to help others just half as much as I was helped by the group the future members will have a very happy and joy filled life. I owe them my life, they saved me.

It’s ironic because as I was writing the last couple of lines Always look on the bright side of life by Monty Python cam on shuffle on my ipod ( I don’t want to be seen endorsing products on my site so for legal reasons I should probably just state that other brands, makes and models of mp3 players are available LOL)

I had planned to write the majority of this blog post on the details and ins and outs of the training course but I got side tracked when talking about the great work Canteen Ireland and it’s volunteers do. Besides some of the subject matter was very upsetting and hard to hear  so I just want to say that the training aims to give “ a basic awareness of the key issues relating to child protection “ and believe me I’m going to do this job to the best of my ability and show others that “life’s for a good time not a long time “

Also, being a charitable organisation they rely entirely on donations, fundraising and the kindness of strangers so please check out the website www.canteen.ie and give what you can “ GO-WAN TIS FOR A GOOD CAUSE “

Oh I almost forgot that on the way to the training I bought a new laptop specifically for use on “ A sense of tumour “ This means I’m ready and able to moderate the site, work on my speeches/talks etc,post new blogs, manage the forum etc and it comes with a built in webcam for Vlogs (video blogs) and skype “ asenseoftumour “ Though even with the web cam it might be hard to see me considering I have such a glare off my follically challenged shiny head lol.

I passed the training course too which means I’m a step closer to becoming a leader in Canteen Ireland.

Until next time

ALLONS-Y

Paudy