Emma Oldager (photo: SAS). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emma Oldager is 10 years old, and a cancer survivor. The Grade 5 student at Shanghai American School (SAS) returned home earlier this year, after seven months of rigorous cancer treatments in Singapore. The battle, a difficult one, was something Emma did not understand at first. “When I first found out I had cancer, I did not mind, because I did not know what I had to go through to make it go away,” she says. She did not realize it would mean chemotherapy; body scans; blood transfusions; a leg amputation; and being away from her father, brother, friends, and school. Initially, neither did her parents. Emma had complained that her left leg was sore, and her parents at first believed it could be ascribed to growing pains. As the pain intensified, they took her to a medical specialist, and the physician spoke the words all parents dread: “It is cancer. Your child has a tumor in her left leg.” Emma was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. “I did not want to break down in front of Emma,” her mother, Janne, says. “While Emma played on her iPad, I went into the nurses’ room and telephoned Claus (Emma’s father). Then, and for the next week, we broke down often, but picked each other up.” Fighting back tears and hoping for better news to come, the Oldager family knew they had to fight the cancer and find the right treatment; but the best option was 2,350 miles away from home, in Singapore. Leaving their friends and family behind, Emma and her mother moved to Singapore. Emma’s father and her brother Sebastian (in Grade 3) stayed behind in Shanghai. SAS became family in the process, and its teachers and students helped lift the Oldagers’ spirits. “Even the teachers and staff I did not know before, everyone at SAS, has been so supportive,” Janne says. “It really helped our family through a difficult period.” And thanks to technology, Emma was able to keep up with her schoolwork and remain a regular part of her class. She joined her Grade 5 class almost every day via Skype. “Emma was right there with us! She was doing exactly what we were doing, “ relates her teacher, Judy Sweeney. Students took turns carrying “iPad Emma” to recess, Chinese, mathematics, and lunch. “I love that I didn’t have to count her absent,” Ms. Sweeney recalls. Fortunately, Emma was able to return to her Shanghai classroom for most of the past school year. It was a long-awaited moment, and a long journey to get there: countless cycles of chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and a leg amputation to save her life (Emma’s leg was amputated above the knee). “I wish all her battles had ended after the last chemo, but learning to walk and run anew is going to take time,” says Janne. “I hope her travails will remind her of what a great fighter she is. Do not live life in fear of getting sick, or worse, of your children getting sick. Cancer does not change who you are, though it might change your life and how you look.” Emma has now resumed her childhood—changed by cancer, yes, but she remains a normal 10-year-old who treasures her friends. Ms. Vitale is Managing Editor of SAS publication The Eagle.
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