About

I Love Someone With Cancer is a children’s picture book that explores the big feelings triggered by a loved one’s cancer diagnosis. 

Using simple language and vibrant illustrations to explain the different stages of treatment, the book supports parents, carers and educators to talk to children about cancer and its emotional impact.  

The inclusive book, aimed at children aged two to seven, explores the cancer journey from the perspective of the child while promoting family diversity as it showcases families in their many forms.

Each family story prepares children for some of the changes that subsequently follow a diagnosis while validating the big feelings that may arise along the way as well as easing fears children may have like, “Can I catch cancer?”

The book can be used as a tool for parents, carers and educators to engage with children to name and identify feelings in a way that feels safe and supportive while offering ways to openly share the emotions and reactions to the changes occurring.

About the author

Danna Diaz has worked as a media advisor, journalist and broadcast producer. At the age of 36, Danna was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. Danna and her husband Jonathan found it hard to share the news with their boy Sonny, aged three at the time, and two-year-old daughter Frida, both sensitive and curious little people. Recognising a gap in children’s books dealing with how to cope with the emotional impact following a loved one’s cancer diagnosis, Danna decided to write the book she wished her family had. 

Danna enlisted a multidisciplinary team of reviewers with lived experience, as well as professionals working in the children’s book industry, early childhood education, social work, and children’s trauma counselling to review I Love Someone With Cancer to ensure the book’s messaging is empowering and gives children a set of tools to make sense of the world after a loved one is diagnosed. All of the activities featured in the illustrations helped Danna and her family cope during the challenging stages of treatment.

Danna is passionate about integrative medicine and believes that everyone on the cancer journey should have access to evidence-based complementary therapies. 15 per cent of book sales will go to Danna’s hospital Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and its integrative oncology centre, the LivingRoom in Camperdown, Sydney.

About the illustrator

Hilary Thackway is an illustrator, art director and award-winning designer based in Sydney, Australia. I Love Someone With Cancer is Hilary’s first children’s book, and one she wishes existed when she was a kid.