MarrowkidzInformation and advice for children affected by aplastic anaemia Welcome to MarrowKidz from The Aplastic Anaemia Trust. Here you can find resources for children affected by aplastic anaemia. Whether you have been diagnosed with aplastic anaemia yourself, or someone in your family or a friend has been diagnosed, this is where you'll find expert information about what's happening, and advice from other children who have been through aplastic anaemia too! A note for adults and teens: We've moved some things around! You'll now find treatment information, resources for parents, schools and teenagers on our main website. Marrowkidz About your AA and treatment Advice from other children Support a friend or family member Watch videos More goodies Keeping friendships Tips and ideas from children about keeping your friendships going when you have aplastic anaemia Aplastic anaemia can change lots of things in your life, including your friendships. Right now, your life probably feels very different from the lives of your friends, and you might feel strange talking about what’s happening to you. But there are some things you can do to make it a bit easier. I used to keep in contact with my friends through my PlayStation. This helped me to feel in touch with my friends when I couldn’t see them. - Charlie, diagnosed at 10 Staying in touch It can feel hard to stay in touch with people if you are spending time in hospital or away from school. This is where things like phone calls and video calls come in. Even if you’re in isolation, there’s nothing to stop you from doing any of those things. Your family will be able to help you to set this up. Speaking with your friends and family can help you feel positive and give you something to look forward to. You might not feel like being in touch with friends every day. This might be because you feel tired or just not up to it. On days when you need some quiet time, let your family know how you are feeling. It is fine to speak to family and friends on another day. You can come back and talk to friends whenever you feel ready to. Your friends may be able to visit you if you are not in isolation. You might really miss them when they’re at school, but remember that they have busy lives too. They might not always be able to visit when you want them to. You might not always feel in the mood for visits, so it’s a good idea to ask them to check with your family before they visit you. How you might feel when you spend time with your friends It will help if you can carry on spending time with your friends, but it might not always feel easy. Here are some things to watch out for: • You might feel grumpy, either because of what’s happening to you, or with your friends. • Your friends’ lives and problems might not feel important compared with yours. Even though what’s happening to you is a big thing, try to remember that your friends might need your help and support too. Friendship should always be a two-way thing. • You might feel as if your friends don’t understand what is happening to you or aren’t interested in you. How your friends might feel Your friends might never have known somebody with an illness like aplastic anaemia before. They might not know what to do or say. They might: • avoid you because they don’t know what to say. They worry about saying something wrong and upsetting you. • think that you want to be left alone so they don’t arrange to visit you. • be frightened about seeing you. They might be scared that you’ll look ill or different. • think that you are too poorly to join in with events like birthday parties or sports. • feel bad about feeling happy and healthy, when you have aplastic anaemia. This may not be the case with your friends and your friendships might carry on as normal. But knowing that these things might happen can help you to talk to your friends and to understand what’s happening. How to talk to your friends about aplastic anaemia Remember that your friends probably won’t know anything at all about aplastic anaemia or how it’s making you feel. If you find that your friends aren’t talking about you having aplastic anaemia, you might want to start talking first. It might help to explain what you feel like right now. Tell friends that you might not always feel up to talking, but that doesn’t mean that you want to lose touch completely. If you’re not in isolation, talk to your family about inviting your friends over, just to relax and to chat. Changing friendships Having aplastic anaemia might mean your friendships change a bit. You might notice that some friends stop spending as much time with you and others might become much closer to you. You might end up seeing some friends and not others. Remember this can always happen anyway, even without aplastic anaemia. You might also make new friends during your treatment for aplastic anaemia. If you meet them in hospital or at a support group, they might be going through an illness too. This might make it easier to talk to them about what’s happening. You’re dealing with a difficult and confusing life change. The important thing to remember is that you are still you, and your friends and family love you for who you are. If you feel sad or worried about anything, talk to them about how you are feeling so they can help you. Would you like this as a book? You can also order this guide as a free printed booklet, or ask a parent to order one for you here: Order one now Manage Cookie Preferences