Researcher on children with cancer:

– The school had no plan for how they were going to receive her, says pensioner Jan Anders Ommundsen.

He remembers when he was a counselor at Tromøy secondary school. Over 20 years have passed since Eva-Mari Andersen returned to school after cancer treatment.

– Cancer is something you should be able to talk about openly in the teachers’ rooms, and we had to take care of her, says Ommundsen.

Andersen was 13 and healthy when she was allowed to start school again, but then came the challenges.

Carried her up the stairs

Andersen received treatment for leukemia at the hospital for over a year, hovering between life and death.

– I was on a ventilator and paralyzed from the neck down, she says.

It was Forskning.no that first wrote about the matter.

But, once she started to get better, things quickly went in the right direction, and she was looking forward to starting school again.

– The difficult thing was that my classroom was on the third floor, without a lift, she explains.

Then her father carried her up the stairs and into the classroom every day. Until the counselor at school couldn’t take it anymore.

– I saw that the father drove the Lada all the way to where the stairs began, and lifted her inside. Then I thought that it shouldn’t be like that, so I carried her to the classroom, says Ommundsen.

Today, Eva-Mari is grateful that the adviser took matters into her own hands and helped her.

– Jan took action then, and became important to me and my family, she says.

Researching those who survive

Today, Andersen is researching the experiences of young cancer survivors at the University of Oslo.

– Many young people who have survived childhood cancer hide their history because they fear they will have fewer opportunities in society, says Andersen.

She believes there is a great need for the school to know more about living on after being ill.

– It is clear that cancer survival extends far beyond medicine’s mandate. There is a great need in schools for information about what it means to be young and seriously ill, and to get well again, she says.

Every year around 200 Norwegian children and young people under the age of 18 get cancer, according to the Norwegian Cancer Registry. Today’s cure for childhood cancer is effective, and eight out of ten survive.

– FThe majority of those who survive cancer will not put their experiences into words because they experience fewer opportunities, or that their ambitions are lowered on their behalf, she explains.

In her research, she uses her own experiences, and she has spoken a lot with adviser Ommundsen to get his perspective from the school.

– I think that school leaders and colleagues should have the opportunity to talk through and discuss the problems that she raises. And, for these children’s experiences of the situation, it is important to know that others have experienced the same, says Ommundsen.