Parent's concerns - Schools

COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
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Hello all,

With many schools having gone back today and the infection rate now high across the country, it’s understandable that many parents living with blood cancer will be concerned.
How is everyone feeling at the moment? For those of you whose child’s school is open, how are you managing this? Is your child’s school understanding of your family’s circumstances?

We know the next few weeks will be very difficult for our community. Our support line is here if you need it – we’re on 0808 2080 888 between 10am and 7pm on weekdays and 10am to 1pm at weekends.

Here is the guidance we shared on our social media channels recently -

With many schools going back on Monday and the infection rate now high across the country, we’re concerned that parents who have blood cancer are not being considered in the Government’s decisions.

Where schools are staying open, the Govt urgently needs to give advice and support for parents with who are vulnerable. This include ensuring high-quality home learning is in place, so children don’t fall behind if they have to stay at home to protect the health of a parent.

We know that many parents with blood cancer are worried about their children going back. If you have blood cancer and live in an area where the infection rate is high, we think it is now worth considering keeping your children off school if you can. This is because people with blood cancer are at high risk from the coronavirus, and we are now at a point where the infection rate is very high and yet we are just weeks away from getting vulnerable people vaccinated.

If this applies to you, then speak to your school to tell them your decision. No parent with blood cancer should feel under any pressure to send their children to school over the next few weeks if they think keeping them off is the right thing for their family.

But we know this isn’t going to be possible for everyone, and people should be supported in making whatever is the right decision for their family and their personal circumstances. If you have blood cancer and it’s not practical to keep your child off school, then you can still reduce your risk from the virus by social distancing, mask-wearing, and good ventilation. There’s more about this on our website:

https://bloodcancer.org.uk/support…/coronavirus-covid-19/

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Hi @Alice_BloodCancerUK, you just beat me to it I was just going to do a similar thread.
Just listening to the media over the weekend and I was getting so confused and for parents, let alone when someone has blood cancer in the family, they must be trying to make the right decision with their youngsters or care provisions at the last moment.
What did we do before immediate ways of contacting people.

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Update on Schools! :point_down: :mega:
As you’ll all know, the UK government last night announced that rates of the coronavirus are now so high that all schools in England will close and that people should stay at home. People who are clinically extremely vulnerable are being asked to shield.

This follows a similar announcement earlier today by the Scottish Government. The whole of Wales remains in Alert level 4 and in Northern Ireland national restrictions remain in place.

We know this news will be difficult for the blood cancer community, and our advice is for people with blood cancer to do everything they can to avoid coming into contact with the virus, including staying at home as much as possible.

But if you have a medical appointment and are worried about going into hospital, speak to your medical team before making any decisions about cancelling it.

It’s important to remember that, as worrying as things now seem, the roll-out of the vaccine means there is real hope in the coming weeks.

Boris Johnson said the Government hopes all people who are clinically extremely vulnerable will get first dose of a vaccine by mid-Feb.

Please do give us a call on our free and confidential support line on 0808 2080 888, if you want to talk things through.

Those of you with school aged children, how are you feeling about the recent updates? Feel free to share how you and your family have been coping.

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