ARTWORKS BY 33 young Irish cancer patients are to be exhibited as part of an international travelling art project that has already been shown in the US, South America and the Middle East.
The children, aged from six to 15 years, recently took part in art workshops at the Shimna Valley Respite Centre, Newcastle, Co Down, run by the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children.
The workshops, led by US art therapist Tracy Councill, were designed to help children cope with the emotional aspects of living with cancer. “I am delighted to be working with children from Ireland, North and South, using art therapy to help them on their cancer journey,” Ms Councill said.
Their artworks, which were inspired by the theme “the day I will never forget”, will join almost 300 other pieces produced by young cancer patients from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Cyprus and from the south of Ireland.
Some 16 patients from Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, took part in a similar workshop last autumn.
Mark Lawler, who organised the art therapy workshops in Newcastle and Crumlin, said they gave the children a voice that could now be heard on an international stage.
“You might expect with the theme of ‘the day I will never forget’, you’d get a lot of pictures involving hospitals but they were far more life-affirming; we had one boy who drew a picture of the day he met the Ireland rugby team, for example.”
The exhibition is due to travel to Northern Ireland early next year.
