VCU news

By Matt Miller
VCU Communications and Public Relations

A private audience in the historic Byrd Theater was captivated and moved by a new film detailing an in-depth compilation of the experiences of 14 cancer patients from Children’s Hospital of Richmond’s (CHoR) Pediatric Hematology and Oncology clinic.

“Dancing in the Rain” was produced by VCU kinetic imaging student Keely Craig, who became involved in the film after hearing about the project, which she thought would be a good fit for her skills and interest.

“The people we interviewed were awesome and really inspiring—they are the coolest people ever,” said Craig. “I feel like I know them because I’ve sat in front of the footage for so many hours. They are really strong individuals.”

Two clinic staff members, Robyn Dillon, a social worker, and Alma Morgan, an educational consultant, helped with the film’s production. Dillon said the video features patients ages 13 to 34 in various stages of treatment, disease and therapy. The video took nearly six months to complete. The documentary is intended to serve as a training tool for Children’s Hospital of Richmond and the community, but it is taking on a role for patients too.

“The mission of this video is a lot of different things,” Dillon said. “First we wanted to capture their perspective and how it impacted them, but also we wanted to use it as an educational tool for when we go to statewide conferences.

“Additionally I’ve been fielding it to show newly diagnosed children and their families: ‘this is what the experience is really like.’ We can’t really know what it’s like—we just walk beside the folks along the way.”

Many of the cancer patients shown in the film attended the public premiere with family and friends.

“The film was breathtaking, because it brought back so many emotions—raw emotions,” said Oscar Holmes, an adjunct instructor in statistics and organizational behavior at VCU and a Ph.D. student at the University of Alabama.  “It was definitely all about where we connected together, and also we had gone through (treatment) so many years apart that a lot of us still had the same experiences.”

Matt Bitsko, Ph.D., an instructor in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology who began working at the clinic in 2006, said that dealing with the transition into cancer treatment is one of his specialties. The patients are sometimes apprehensive to speak with someone about the disease they’re enduring. 

He finds it helps to let patients know that when they are ready to speak to him he is there to listen. 

Bitsko added that he understands that sometimes holding their feelings in is a source of strength for patients and how their individual therapy begins ultimately must be their choice.

“Kids and families teach us a lot,” said Bitsko. “What they need from us as providers, they also tell us where they want to go as an individual.”

Bitsko said that cancer patients have an 80 percent chance of survival, which means the rate of survival is stacked in the patients’ favor. 

The mission of the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology is to serve the Commonwealth of Virginia as a nationally recognized entity of clinical, educational and research excellence.

The division is dedicated to improving the quality of children’s lives through prevention, control and cure of cancer and blood disorders. ChoR’s Pediatric Hematology and Oncology clinic is the only of its kind in central Virginia.

For more information about the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology clinic visit http://www.vcuchildrens.org/?id=650&sid=4.