GETTING THROUGH IT; Program Helps Kids Cope with a Parent's Cancer Diagnosis

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Byline: Tracy Jones

Charlie Brumback, 6, loved twirling his mom's long, blond hair.

So when Jennifer Brumback, Charlie's mother, began to lose hair above each ear from radiation treatments, it was those two patches of missing hair that bothered Charlie the most.

But for his mother, it was more than just the hair loss - it was the guilt she felt about having her children experience something as scary as cancer.

"One of the first immediate things I thought of was, how will life treat them without a mother?" Jennifer Brumback said.

There are several support groups, runs and fundraisers for women with cancer, but the children of those diagnosed has been an under-served group in Jacksonville, said Jennifer Maggiore, a social worker specializing in oncology and support program coordinator for Kids Together Against Cancer.

"As parents, we take care of our children when we're sick; we don't expect to get sick ourselves," Maggiore said.

Kids Together Against Cancer, a free program available to any child whose parent or caretaker has been diagnosed with some form of cancer, was created in the fall of 2009 to help children understand and cope with their parent's illness and treatment. The …