A Very Special Place is a story for courageous young cancer patients

Author Maitha Al Khayat helps Hala, a patient at Tawam Hospital in Al Ain, read her book, ‘A Very Special Place’. Delores Johnson / The National

AL AIN // A book in Arabic and English versions about an Emirati patient filled the hearts of young oncology patients at Tawam Hospital on Wednesday.

The idea for A Very Special Place came from the Children's National Medical Centre in Washington DC as a way to support the Year of Reading, and it was written by Emirati author Maitha Al Khayat and illustrated by Noora Al Shaikh.

Umm Abood, from Jordan, found out last year that her four-year-old son suffers from head and neck cancer. She said he changed after being diagnosed.

“At one point, I felt like he was not my son anymore. Now I can see a glimpse of my baby,” she said as she watched her son run towards a life-size mascot-style character from the book who visited young patients.

Terry Spearman, manager of Child Life Services at the centre in the US, was invited to Tawam Hospital for the launch of the book.

“We are very much concerned about how children who come to hospitals manage, because it can be very scary and very frightening. We want to make sure as much as possible that kids are seen as children who need help and to help them be more comfortable with what they are going to have done at the hospital,” she said.

The book is one such means, she said. “Any time a child reads a book, it helps them to express themselves, it helps them to imagine and gives them a chance to talk about their feelings,” said Ms Spearman.

Melissa Price, the senior associate director of the Washington centre, said: “We thought it was important to show support for this incredible initiative. We have a shared commitment with the Government of Abu Dhabi to reading, children and healthcare.”

This shared commitment is what inspired the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Paediatric Surgical Innovation at the Children’s National Medical Centre in the US capital.

The book is about the journey of a young boy who is admitted to the centre and meets Dr Bear, the hospital’s mascot, and other characters.

“It’s the first of its kind in the sense that it’s a children’s book but it’s also education. It helps children prepare for being at a hospital because it can be a very scary time. This book is meant to calm children and show them what they might experience,” said Ms Price.

“For me, one of the lessons is that it’s OK to be scared and that, even if you are scared, it’s often because you are about to do something brave.

“These children are scared but they are very brave to be having surgery. We want to show them that they are very brave and strong.”

Al Kayat has written 19 books and said that writing A Very Special Place presented a few challenges but that it was a great experience.

“I had to re-experience and recall how it felt to be a child who had to go to the hospital,” said the mother of five. “[My children] were the first to see the book and they loved it.”

Dr Kurt Newman, president and chief executive of Children’s National Medical Centre, said he hoped that is the first of many books to come. “It’s amazing and inspiring to have,” he said.

"A Very Special Place is available at Tawam Hospital and soon in bookstores in the UAE."