Camp Sunshine 2010

The next many posts will contain pictures and comments from the 2010 annual Fanconi Anemia Camp Sunshine. Some of the pictures are our own, others are from the very active Camp photographer, and a single or two are kindly sent to us by Jeanne Altmann, a very nice grandmother to a FA-girl called Nina. Nina died in 2006 from FA (brain tumor), but her mother Rachel, her brother Benjamin and her grandmother Jeanne attended this years Camp - as well as previous ones. They are a great inspiration to Tue and I, giving us great hopes as to the possibilities of coping with even the hardest of FA realities.

Camp was fantastic - and VERY HECTIC! Having scrolled through pictures from previous Camps and the Camp Sunshine official homepage, Tue and I had set our minds on a nice little week with relaxation, family-life and great outdoor activities. Little did we know that this would apply mainly to our kids! Only one hour after arriving at Camp we were to 'drop off' our kids at the Tot-Lot and attend our first parent session! Meeting the extremely nice volunteers at the Tot-Lot and admiring the playground, all the toys and a bunch of nice kids to play with, both Sebastian and Marie-Louise soon adjusted to their play- and joyfull new surroundings. Even though none of them spoke a single word of English, and nobody understood a single word of what they said!

Tue and I on the other hand, were in for the big surprise: we attended 16 sessions on medical and psycological issues in four days! We could not get enough of all the important messages from top-scientists, and could not stop wanting to hear more of other families experiences with FA. We had a tough schedule from morning till late evening, and only had family-time around breakfast, lunch and dinner with Sebastian and Marie-Louise. We will never forget the outstanding job done by a bunch of volunteers at the Tot-Lot, who managed to make our kids feel safe and welcome.

And we will never forget our great conversations with Ralf Dietrich and Eunike Valleuer, who made us realise a few very important points vis-a-vis our work with the Danish health-system and the doctors here. We hope to meet up with the Ralf-team again - hopefully in Denmark some time.