Girls’ Day Out Event Helps Unite—and Nurture—Teens Battling Cancer

From the Stanford Medicine SCOPE medical blog. Highlights recent event organized by Recreation Therapy and Child Life.

By: Holly MacCormick, August 7, 2015

There are many treatments, therapies and drugs for cancer, but sometimes a day of pampering with friends is just what the doctor ordered.

That’s why nine teenage girls being treated for cancer at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford were lavished with a bit of tender loving care — and some quality bonding time — at the seventh annual Girls’ Day Out.

The festivities began at 8:30 on Wednesday night with a limo ride from the hospital to TOVA Day Spa in the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose. At TOVA, teens that had attended Girls’ Day Out events from years before had the opportunity to reconnect, chat and welcome newcomers as they received massages, pedicures, manicures, hairstyling and a gourmet lunch. This story in the San Jose Mercury News explains:

“It’s really fun and a great getaway; it’s really nice to be with people who won’t keep asking ‘what happened to your arm,’ ” said incoming Saratoga High School freshman Simran Mallik, 14. She was left with a scar on her arm after undergoing treatment for Ewing Sarcoma, a type of bone cancer. “I feel like I connect with them more; it’s just easier to communicate.”

Tova Yaron, the owner of TOVA Day Spa, has sponsored this event for the past seven years with support from the Children Having Exceptional Educational and Recreational Support (CHEERS) program that’s a part of the 19 for Life Foundation. At the event, Yaron and her staff donate their time and expertise to create a day of fun, and free spa treatments, for the girls.

TOVA’s spa treatments are a refreshing break from the kind of treatments and therapies the teens are used to receiving as cancer patients, but perhaps the most important gift the girls receive is the opportunity to relax and be themselves among friends who understand what it’s like to be a teenager battling cancer.

“It’s interesting to see how other people are after they’ve gone through (cancer treatment),” said Vivian Lou 15, a student at James Logan High School in Union City who was diagnosed with Wilms tumor, a type of kidney cancer, five years ago. “It’s nice because I don’t have to feel weird about it because they’ve also been through it.”

Authors

Samantha Dorman
(650) 384-5826
sdorman@stanfordchildrens.org