How a cancer diagnosis led a Sudbury woman to write a children's book on coping with serious illness

A woman from Sudbury is hoping to bring comfort to children battling serious illnesses — like cancer. 

Jennifer Gaudette-Besserer wrote the picture book, My Little Survivor, after she was diagnosed with cancer herself in June 2019. Undergoing radiation and extensive surgery to treat her sarcoma, a type of cancer that manifests as malignant tumours, she says, was a challenging journey for her family. 

She adds that managing her mental health and staying positive during the ordeal wasn't easy even as an adult.

The experience led her to empathize with children going through similar struggles who don't necessarily have the coping mechanisms that adults do, to help pull them through. 

"As I was recovering, I decided that I wanted to try and do something to give back to the cancer centre in Sudbury, for everything they did for me there," she says. 

Gaudette-Besserer says the book can be used as a tool for families to cope and process the "roller coaster" of emotions that often go along with serious illness. 

She plans to donate at least half the proceeds of the book to the Northeast Cancer Centre in Sudbury, where she herself was treated for Sarcoma. Once she calculates the final totals of how much the production of the book will cost, she says, if there is any money left over she will donate that to the centre as well. 

I hope this can be something they can be proud of their mom for doing, and you know, something even as they grow older they can share with their kids.— Jennifer Gaudette-Besserer

"I know how hard it was for myself to go through the anxiety and all the different feelings that you go through," she says, "And I was just trying to find a way to help kids get through that." 

"Hopefully if a child is having a bad day or something their parents can bring out the book and they can read it and maybe get them through that hard time."

While she was inspired by her own experience with cancer, Gaudette-Besserer says he was also motivated by her children to write the book.

"I hope this can be something they can be proud of their mom for doing, and you know, something even as they grow older they can share with their kids," she says. 

Since putting the book for sale on Wednesday night, she's already sold about 65 copies. 

But Gaudette-Besserer says she has her sights set higher. She wants to sell at least 1,000 copies. 

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