Camp COCO works its magic | SIU Healthy Dose

Written by Lauren Murphy, SIU School of Medicine

This summer, thousands of children and teens have hugged their parents goodbye, turned off their cellphones and surrendered to nature for a week of camping, swimming, canoeing, telling ghost stories and singing folksongs. Among these kids were 146 Camp COCO participants. Unlike the average summer camper, however, COCO campers have a special relationship with childhood cancer.

On July 5 – 10, kids and teens from rural Illinois descended on Lake Bloomington in Hudson, Ill. to experience a summer camp like no other – Camp COCO, or Children’s Oncology Camp Organization. While not all the campers have cancer, they’ve all been touched by the illness in one way or another. Campers include children and teens who currently or have previously had cancer, as well as their siblings.

“A cancer diagnosis brings with it a terrifying interruption of childhood,” explains Camp COCO director Bet Spence. “Our programming is designed to help our camper overcome the physical, mental and emotional barriers posed by cancer. Campers find friends and staff who understand their experiences, concerns and dreams.”

Though the camp attracts more than 140 children from southern and central Illinois each year, childhood cancer is fairly rare, says Dr. Daniel Niebrugge, a pediatric cancer specialist at SIU School of Medicine.

“Cancer in children is not very common compared to cancer in adults,” Dr. Niebrugge explains. “Of a thousand kids, about one to two of them will develop cancer of some form. If you look at the whole childhood, that is from the time you are born to an adult or age 21, the chances of getting cancer is about 1 in 300, so it is a fairly small number.”

Treatments for childhood cancers like leukemia have also improved, despite many of the medications being the same as they were decades ago.

“There are some new drugs, but most of the drugs that we use now, whether it be for leukemia or for brain tumors, or sarcomas, or bone tumors, they are the same drugs we were using 30 years ago or even 40 years,” says Dr. Niebrugge. “But we are using them with more precision – better combinations, so our results have improved. For childhood leukemia we now have an 85 to 90 percent cure rate. I am not talking about a five-year remission; I am talking about what appears to be a cure.”

And until there’s a definitive cure for all childhood cancers and blood disorders, there’s Camp COCO.

“Nothing can compensate for the anguish that childhood cancer inflicts,” says Spence. “But Camp COCO is an organization that tries to make a difference. The ability of one child to tell another, ‘Oh, I had that and I’m fine now,’ is a special gift one camper can give to another. That is what makes Camp such a magical place.”

Camp COCO is entirely supported by donations, and parents of campers are never asked to pay. The cost to send one child to camp for a week is approximately $700. To help sponsor a camper in 2016, visit siumed.edu/foundation/campcoco.htm.