Drawing and colouring can help with the stress of being diagnosed with cancer or being terminally ill with cancer. This can help both children and adults alike.

We work with a group of local artists who spend time and draw with cancer patients as a way of talking about the worries related to the illness.

• For instance, when someone starts drawing, they can express whatever stress or hardships they are feeling and, in that way, find a way to cope and overcome it.

• Drawing can be treated as a method of communication that encourages problem solving and self-discovery.

• Drawing provides a safe and stress-free environment where people who are unable to express their anxiety can express themselves without using words.

• A cancer diagnosis can feel as if you have no control. As a therapeutic exercise, by drawing whatever it is upsetting you the most, you remove it from yourself and your body and put it onto something else. In a more symbolic way, you can destroy those hardships by throwing out the paper, tearing it etc.

Most importantly, drawing helps communicating and talking and talking makes one feel less alone faced with cancer.