Second LATER Meet-up: lots of updates and premiere of documentary series

On Wednesday evening, September 27, the second LATER Meet-up took place. More than eighty attendees, survivors, loved ones, researchers, and care professionals joined the event. We showed how the Máxima Center works to improve quality of life for childhood cancer survivors and how survivors themselves contribute to this. One example is through VOX, the survivor group of the Dutch Childhood Cancer Association.

There was an update on the M4C LATER program, with presentations by Rianne Koopman, head of the LATER clinic and LATER physician, about LATER care, and by Leontien Kremer, professor of late effects, about LATER research. Heleen van der Pal, LATER physician, explained the recently updated LATER guideline. Rebecca van Kalsbeek, PhD student, then presented the outcomes indicators project. She explained how we measure quality of survival and what the purpose of this is. The final presentation was given by Jikke Wams, PhD student, who discussed the EU-CAYAS-NET project, which focuses on setting up the European Network of Youth Cancer Survivors. The Máxima Center makes a major contribution to this project, particularly in developing a guideline for the transition from pediatric to adult care.

Premiere

The second part of the evening focused on the premiere of the documentary series ‘From surviving to living: Personal stories about life after childhood cancer’ by director and survivor Annick Sickinghe. Themes such as impact on identity, coping with physical consequences, and psychosocial effects were explored in the episodes.

Wouter Kollen and Eline van der Meulen, policy officers for survivorship care and research at the VKKN and VOX, spoke with Annick Sickinghe and two people featured in the series. It was special to hear how taking part in the series led to new conversations about the past.

The success of the evening was reflected in comments from attendees. One visitor said, ‘I wish I had seen this earlier.’ Another commented, ‘Everyone who works at the Máxima Center should see this series.’

The first four episodes will be published online soon. The first episode will be available on October 12, via the LATER website, and the Máxima Center YouTube channel. A new episode will be released each week. The final four episodes will be published in early 2024.