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In 2012, my son Nils was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma cancer at the age of 13. I spent a year and a half navigating my teenage son’s cancer, in and out of hospitals in Singapore and Seattle.
Miraculously, he beat cancer. Months later, complications arising from a stem cell transplant tragically took him away from me and my family.
Throughout this ordeal to keep my son alive, I learned deeply about the reality for children with cancer and their caregivers, and the healing power of relationships and a community. I have had first-hand insight into how doctors and nurses work; the good, bad and ugly of both Eastern and Western medical systems and the hospitals that house them.
Chemotherapy, radiation and stem cell transplants may be the medical terms of hope. But healthcare guidance; emotional, social and community support are just as crucial. Unfortunately, some hospitals despite their best efforts, have not yet been structured to fully provide what is so desperately needed.
Even in our darkest moments, I remember my son always reaching out to children he perceived to be suffering more than him. That’s why I started LOVE, NILS – to reach out to families fighting cancer and to have their back every step of the way.
As a non-profit organisation, we aim to share knowledge, resources and a community, to give shelter both physically and emotionally, and to provide a foundation for resilience and hope.
I can tell you a thing or two about working with healthcare systems. I can share how you make them work for you; how you fight to get what you need for your child, how to keep yourself healthy, resilient and hopeful. Most of all, I want you to know that you’re not alone.
Lesli Berggren is a Texan who had lived in Singapore since 1998 and now resides in the US, where she founded LOVE, NILS. She is mother to a beautiful daughter Claire; Nils’ twin.
Having worked in PR, founded her own graphic design company and jewelry design business, she has helped the Children’s Cancer Foundation and National Kidney Foundation on therapies to help with mental wellness of pediatric patients in hospitals. She has worked at the VIVA Foundation for Children with Cancer and holds fundraising events for GvHD awareness as well as toy drives for pediatric cancer ward patients at National University Hospital and for KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
She is also writing a book LOVE, NILS, to help patients and their caregivers better manage the pain, fear and emotional fallout of long-term illness. It is aimed at medical personnel, therapists, parents, siblings and teachers—anyone, in fact, keen to take a holistic approach to the suffering of sick children.