How the Emotional Culture Deck helped the youth leadership team from the CanTeen’s Hawkes Bay branch

Young people don’t expect to come face to face with cancer, but they do. Cancer is terrifying for anyone, but for a young person already dealing with what life is throwing at you, cancer – your own or that of a family member – is an unexpected curveball.  Dedicated to supporting young people 13-24 come to grips with the emotional and practical toll of cancer, CanTeen gets it.

Earlier this year during one of the Hawke’s Bay branch’s leadership meetings, CanTeen Youth Support Coordinator Kerrie Waby added an agenda item: How to help young people emotionally open and discuss what they felt when they were first diagnosed with cancer.

The opportunity to support CanTeen had come about after meeting with Anthony Gouder from the Hawkes Bay Regional Council during the previous month. Anthony had signed up to test one...