How we started
Message from a founding Member
In the beginning
CanTeen Today
Message from a founding Member
CanTeen is based on the philosophy that no young person should have to go through their cancer experience alone.
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In the beginning
CanTeen was founded by its Members
CanTeen was born in 1985, when a group of six young cancer patients gathered together as part of a study to discuss the psychological impact of cancer on adolescents.
Les Beath, Peter De Pasquale, Roger Morton, Carol Quinlan, Joanne Walsh and Claire Williams found they quickly all agreed on one thing - that there weren’t any organisations around to help them deal with their cancer journey. They decided that by getting together with other young people who were going through the same thing, they could help each other by sharing their experiences and offering mutual support.
They were supported in their idea by concerned health professionals from the Sydney Children’s Hospital, who recognised that the health system was not meeting their - or their sibling's - unique support needs. These health professionals - oncologist Les White, psychiatrist Russell White, social workers Ralph Hampson and Vivien Hart, and PhD student Michael Carr-Gregg - felt that more needed to be done. In fact, it was Michael's PhD study that first brought the founding members together.
The CanTeen name and logo
The name for CanTeen came from Michael Carr-Gregg who, in a moment of inspiration, had the idea to make a play on words with ‘cancer’ and ‘teenager’.
The logo was designed by the artist Ken Done - himself a cancer survivor. Famous for his bright and positive artwork, he was the perfect choice to come up with a logo for CanTeen that represented the upbeat mood of the organisation.
The very first camp was organised in early 1985 with the aim of allowing young people with cancer - and their brothers and sisters - to get away from their daily experience of cancer, have some fun, build relationships and share their experiences with each other. This camp was organised with the help of Julie Dunsmore, a psychologist from Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.
CanTeen today
CanTeen has come a long way since that first small camp, but our basic goal of giving young people living with cancer the opportunity to share their cancer experience has remained the same.
When CanTeen first started it was only open to cancer patients. But it soon became clear that there was a massive need amongst all sorts of other young people living with cancer, and so we opened the organisation up to siblings and offspring.
Today, CanTeen provides peer support services for 12 to 24 year-olds across five Membership categories of Patient Members, Sibling Members, Offspring Members, Bereaved Sibling Members and Bereaved Offspring Members.
Each year CanTeen delivers in excess of 80 camps and hundreds of other programs and activities, across eight Divisions around Australia . Like the very first camp, today’s camps are between two and five days long. They contain a mixture of psychological support and development and social activities, and range from general (Divisional) camps for all Members to camps focused on specific needs, like “Bereaved”, “Healthy Living”, “Good Grief” and “Moving Forward”.
All of CanTeen’s camps, as well as the more informal Recreation Days and Cafe Crawls, are aimed at providing Members with a place where they can escape the adult-dominated world of cancer hospitals and the routine of cancer treatments.
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