Parenting Through Cancer: Less Perfection, More Connection

When you're diagnosed with cancer, everything changes — except your kids still need dinner, stories, clean clothes and someone to kiss them goodnight. In this episode, Faith shares how she and her husband navigated her stage 4 cancer diagnosis while raising two young daughters. With support from her care team and community, they worked to keep routines steady, emotions honest, and hope alive.

Joined by WashU Medicine gynecologic oncologist Andrea Hagemann, MD, and WashU Medicine clinical psychologist Amaris Tippey, PhD, we explore the emotional toll of parenting through illness, the power of honest conversations with kids, and how love, support and boundaries can carry a family through the unimaginable. This is an episode about resilience, community and the kind of strength that grows in the hardest places.

 

“This is Cancer” is brought to you by Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Wash U Medicine, and produced at Spot Content Studio in St. Louis, MO.

 

For more information on topics discussed in this episode, go to:

https://siteman.wustl.edu/patients/

https://siteman.wustl.edu/visiting/patient-and-family-services/social-work-services/

https://siteman.wustl.edu/treatment/siteman-psychology-service/

https://siteman.wustl.edu/visiting/patient-and-family-services/support-groups-at-siteman/