Childhood Cancer Awareness Month – Meet Dr Emma Sage
It’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and to bring about awareness, St George’s are profiling just a few of the many incredible members of staff that are involved in paediatric cancer journeys.
Meet Dr Emma Sage, Consultant Paediatrician and Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Lead. Emma shares some of the incredible team work that goes into helping children we see at St George’s with cancer.
Tell me about your team and what you do to help children with cancer?
I lead the paediatric oncology shared care team, which consists of doctors, nurses, psychologists, dieticians and social workers, which works to support the children who live locally to St George’s through their journey with cancer. This support is both medical – giving chemotherapy, reviewing medical problems, seeing them in clinic etc – but also psychological, and extends from the patient to their entire family. We look after patients going through a long and stressful journey, through highs and lows, and provide support long after their active treatment has ended.
Why is children’s cancer awareness month important to you and your team?
Having a child with cancer is one of the hardest journeys any family could go through – and childhood cancer awareness month helps to raise awareness of that, to support our families, and to raise important funds to help further research into treatments.
What do you enjoy most about working within our children’s cancer team?
I work with the best team in the hospital! They are kind, caring and go above and beyond every single time for our patients and their families, and they do all of this with good humour and a smile (most of the time!!). Watching how our patients and their families go through treatment fills me with awe every single time, and being able to support them through this with my team is an absolute privilege. I wouldn’t do any other job.