Lia and the peas or what is cancer?

A Story Your Way!

For children who have a parent with cancer

When a parent is diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer, the entire family gets shaken by the event, especially children.

Explaining illness and its consequences to children is often a difficult and complex endeavor. A simple approach rarely reassures a child. It is therefore important to thematize the situation as well as the new daily routine and the specific symptoms the patient will go through.

Each situation is unique and has its own specifications

For certain cancers, such as breast, books aimed at children do exist. However, very often these books cover one specific situation and usually reflect a standard/traditional family structure: mother, father and a child. In reality, the nuclear family is not representative of many patients’ situations. The ill parent may be divorced and live alone or live with a partner of the same sex. Children of ill parents may be cared for by a grandparent, a nanny, an uncle… the family configurations of the real world are many.

"Lia and the peas or what is cancer?" - A Story Your Way !

The web platform « LiaStories.ch » offers the story of Lia and one of her parents being ill of cancer through 90 specific versions that represent a multitude of family configurations.  This book, created and produced by NovaCarta, is entirely « customizable » and can be printed as one or as many you wish through the web platform.

On this platform, the user will be able to create his/her book with the right parameters that will be chosen in accordance with his/her family situation. That way, the story will be representative of the child’s reality.
The book will be printed on demand for the patient’s family through a simple online process. The printed book will be delivered either by mail or directly through the medical team.

You can choose the graphic style

« Lia and the peas or what is cancer? » proposes 3 illustration styles done by 3 known cartoonists: Adrienne Barman, Tom Tirabosco and Johan Walder. These different designs render the book even more customizable.