Activity book for young cancer patients

With the help of two former students, Brian Lariche has published an activity book to help kids with cancer connect the dots, writes RACHAEL PHILIP

HOW does a four-year-old child cope with cancer? The bouts of feeling sick, the sudden loss of hair, the days when even balloons and stickers can’t bring on a smile.

How do parents explain to their child why she or he is sick when most of the time, even they don’t have the answers.

Brian Lariche, a volunteer with the National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM), hopes he can help. Together with two young friends, he has produced an activity book of colouring, connect-the-dots and mazes.

However, randomly presented between the pages of fun, are columns for children to write down how they feel that day and what troubles them. These are an important part of the book.

Besides getting them to colour needles, hats and their doctors and nurses, the book also briefly explains to the children what is going on inside their bodies.

Lariche delivers the books to hospitals around the country. “The information is actually out there. It was a matter of compiling it and making it applicable,” he says.

He enlisted two of his former Bahasa Malaysia tuition students, sisters Esadora and Grace Chang, to help him with the illustrations.

“I needed the perspective of younger people to make the book a success. In class, I noticed that these two girls had a talent for drawing. They even used to draw me!”

Upon completion, a draft of the book was given out to experts in the field for their input as well as to friends to get feedback. It returned with a thumb’s up.

Lariche says the book has done quite a bit for the girls. “The project has given them confidence. They now know that they can do it,” he says.

“It was a good opportunity and we learned quite a lot. At first it seemed like a daunting task to come up with a book and to get it published,” says Esadora.

“It never occurred to me that kids can have cancer. I think it’s good that they can have some fun while going through a really bad time,” says Grace.

The effort took them almost two years as Esadora was studying for her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysian examinations then. Esadora, 20, is currently pursuing her dream — illustration — at the One Academy in Bandar Sunway, Selangor, while Grace, 18, is studying A-levels at Taylor’s College and hopes to read economics.

Parents, caregivers or volunteers can pick up on the child’s drawings and writings, and discuss them.

When Lariche travels locally, he brings along the books and delivers them to hospitals himself. The tuition teacher and consultant who helps companies with social responsibility projects, is also a volunteer with many other NGOs. In August 2000, he and a partner formed The Liaison Combination Sdn Bhd.

Despite having so much on his hands, Lariche still finds time to run his own charity project, collecting food and sundries for delivery to various homes in the Klang Valley on a monthly basis.

But perhaps it all started with tuition. He started giving lessons when he was in Form 5, figuring that it was a good means of supporting himself since he was good in Mathematics and Bahasa Malaysia. At the peak of his career as a tuition teacher, he had about 200 students.

It freed him to pursue what he liked doing best — community work. He worked with various NGOs, from those that handled AIDS and HIV to the NCSM. He works on special projects and translates literature for them.

The Lim sisters say that tuition classes were “relaxed”. Serious karangan (essay) topics were debated enthusiastically and while it brought in the As, it also opened their minds to various local issues and helped them look at both sides of the coin. And by helping him sort out the food items or by repainting homes, the students too became involved in his community projects.

Lariche still keeps in touch with his ex-students, some of whom have become his good friends while one or two have gone into volunteering work full time.

Lariche is currently working on other books for the NCSM. Next is a book that offers more information on the illness as well as treatment and caring for a patient.

“Parents and caregivers must also take the initiative. Go through the book and discuss things with the child. This will help them ask their doctors pertinent questions,” he explains.

Why does he volunteer?

“To balance the scale a bit. Anyway, I get more out of it, so it’s a real pleasure,” he adds.