Nick News with Linda Ellerbee features The Face of Courage: Kids Living with Cancer

Nick News has been known to tackle tough subjects that kids are dealing with, throughout the years. We recently reported on a show about kids living with physical disabilities. Now, the longtime Nick News host, Linda Ellerbee is tackling a new subject in a new Nick News special entitled The Face of Courage: Kids Living with Cancer.

The show will premiere on January 24, 2010. Here are the details that I received in the following press release from Nickelodeon.

NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2010 – Cancer. When children hear the word, what do they think? It may be scary, but today, a diagnosis of cancer is not necessarily a death sentence. Nick News with Linda Ellerbee explores the world of kids who are living with cancer on The Face of Courage: Kids Living with Cancer, premiering Sunday, Jan. 24, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon. The road these kids travel is not easy; it is pitted with fear, pain and loss. But also it is a road paved with hope, strength, courage and even humor. They have been where no kid should have to go, and they have survived to share their stories – and their courage – with the rest of us.

“All of these kids live as if the cancer were never coming back,” says Ellerbee, an 18-year cancer survivor. “Cancer is a part of my past. That’s a fact. It’s a part of my present because I choose to speak about it, and for the same reason, it will be a part of my future. But it is not who I am. It is not who any of us is.”

Alexandra, 14, lost her leg to bone cancer. “I was sitting on the bed outside the operating room…and I remember just taking a pen from one of the nurses aids and writing ‘I love you’ on (my) knee…that was the last thing I basically did for my leg,” says Alexandra. Today, her cancer is in remission and she’s made friends with her new “bionic” leg. “I think that as much as cancer hurts you and harms you, in the end…all the experiences you have gone through make you stronger, so you almost go from being too weak to being stronger than you were in the first place.”

Diagnosed with leukemia in July 2009, Diamonisha, 12, currently is in treatment and, not surprisingly, angry, confused and hopeful, all at the same time. “The hospital is not a world for kids…you don’t wanna be in there…Sometimes it makes me feel sad cause I don’t like this cancer. Sometimes it makes me feel happy because the cancer’s going away and I’m gonna be better, and I’ll have hair, finally,” she says.

While in the hospital being treated for an aggressive form of leukemia, Tatyana, 11, made a video about her experience for her friends so they could understand what it was like. She has since returned to school. “I wore a hat because I didn’t want anybody to see my baldness. I was very worried that my friends were going to treat me different. Then, once I took the hat off, I realized that they were fine with it. They didn’t really care and so…if they didn’t care, why should I?”

Going through the first of five rounds of chemo for a tumor in his abdomen, Tyler, 10, hates the mask he must wear in public to protect himself. Tyler says, “I try to ignore everybody who stares…or whispers to somebody else. I just don’t feel normal when I wear it.” As for the cancer? “It does change my view of life…because I have learned that life is full of twists and turns now.”

Hector, 14, suffers from a soft tissue cancer that affected an eye socket. “They had to remove my eye or else I was going to die. So they told me to make a choice,” says Hector. A choice a kid shouldn’t have to make. Hector worried that losing an eye would make him too different from other kids, but being in a cancer ward gave him a new perspective. “It made me realize that it wasn’t only me. The world was full with kids with cancer.”

Lexi, who is 11 and has a slow-growing brain tumor, gets a similar feeling of camaraderie at Camp Sunshine, where every kid has cancer. Lexi says, “Everybody here knows what you’re going through and you feel like a normal kid. It’s a place where I can talk to people about my cancer life and they know what I feel like.”

Bryn, 14, was diagnosed with Stage Four lymphoma nearly two years ago. Today she’s in remission and participates in a support network called Teens Living with Cancer. “I think the experience of a veteran is a lot like the experience of a cancer survivor because you are coming back from a war, you’re coming back from the fight for your life basically. You start to realize that life is very fleeting and that you want to make the most of it,” says Bryn.

Nick News, produced by Lucky Duck Productions, is now in its 19th year and is the longest-running kids’ news show in television history. It has built its reputation on the respectful and direct way it speaks to kids about the important issues of the day. Nick News recently was honored with its first ever Edward R. Murrow Award for “Network News Documentary” for the documentary special, “Coming Home: When Parents Return from War,” marking the first-ever kids television program to receive the prestigious award.

Over the years, Nick News has received more than 20 Emmy nominations and recently won its seventh Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Children’s Nonfiction Program for “Coming Home: When Parents Return from War.” Additional Emmy wins for Outstanding Children’s Programming include: “The Untouchable Kids of India” (2008); “Private Worlds: Kids and Autism” (2007); “From the Holocaust to the Sudan” (2005); “Faces of Hope: The Kids of Afghanistan” (2002); “What Are You Staring At?” (1998). In addition, in 1994, the entire series won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programming. Nick News has also received three Peabody Awards, including a personal award given to Ellerbee for her coverage for kids of the President Clinton investigation, as well as two Columbia duPont Awards and more than a dozen Parents’ Choice Awards.

Note: Photo Courtesy of Lucky Duck Productions. This article was updated to reflect a change in the date of this special.

Technorati Tags: Nickelodeon, Nick News, Stories of Courage, Kids, Childhood Cancer, Cancer, Linda Ellerbee, News for Children, Children’s Programming, Television

Written by Ashtyn Evans - Visit Website
---
Ashtyn is in her early 30s. She is a mother, writer, college student, and music lover. Ashtyn has had a successful career as a writer since 2003. She turned to blogging in 2005. Ashtyn attends Wright State where she is getting a degree in Psychology. She has extensive knowledge in SEO and Social Media Development.