Photo By Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal | Zachary Tyrrell, 8, views paintings made by family, friends, cancer survivors and...... read more read more
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TRIPLER ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, Hawaii – Service members, families, patients and survivors joined together to use art as a way to reflect during the eighth annual Oncology on Canvas event April 12.
Pat Nishimoto, TAMC adult oncology clinical nurse specialist, described how the event enabled those affected by cancer to express on canvas that which gives their cancer journey meaning.
“To me it’s magic,” Nishimoto said. “It is a chance for our patients, their families and their friends to come in and use art to reflect on their cancer journey because cancer doesn’t happen just to the patient, it affects everyone who knows them and cares about them.”
Haley Tyrell, a 10-year-old who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 5, and her family were in attendance. Haley’s father Patrick Tyrrell, retired U.S. Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt., her mother Wendy Cockshell, and her brother Zachary Tyrrell, 8, painted their journey during the event as a family.
“This is probably the only time that our family sits back and looks at what we’ve been through,” Cockshell said. “We usually put it in the background and do what we have to do. Today makes you stop and think about this whole journey with our Haley, and what it means to us and how it changes your life.”
Haley’s brother explained how his painting helps represent his family’s journey with cancer.
“I guess I’m a pretty big eater and I was eating donuts when an idea popped into my head,” Zachary said. “The picture was called ‘Cancer equals bad and donuts equal good’ and on one side it had a smiling donut and then it had a person crying.”
Cockshell described the affection that Haley and Zachary share with one another.
“They love each other very much and Zachary does a lot for his sister,” Cockshell said. “She came down with cancer when she was 5-years-old, the week after he had his fourth birthday. There’s not a lot he remembers before she had cancer and because she had brain and spinal cancer she had to learn to move and speak again so he lost his little playmate all in one day. She looks after him and he looks after her a lot now.”
Cockshell’s painting helped represent both the good and the bad times her family goes through during their journey.
“My picture is called ‘the sun rises and the sun sets,’ and I drew shadows of things that actually haunt me from Haley’s journey and as joyful as it is we see both sides more intensely,” Cockshell said. “We see happiness, and the sad times are really devastating. There’s more intensity in life and living in the moment in these few shadows that come out this year in the painting.”
Patrick used the opportunity to paint as a way to showcase his daughter’s kindness and the love his family shares.
“I started [painting] Haley in a wheelchair,” Patrick said. “She’s famous for her hugs and gives everyone she knows hugs and sometimes people that she doesn’t know. I wanted to have her in her chair hugging someone. Her buddy Zachary, is a wonderful brother so I tried [painting] him giving her a hug.”
He also described how his family benefits from activities where they are able to interact with other families going through similar situations.
“You can kind of relate it to a deployment where you come back and when you try to tell your buddy who’s not in the military what you’ve been through, they don’t understand,” Patrick said. “Families with cancer understand the trials and tribulations you go through.”
During Oncology on Canvas, Haley painted a picture that represented herself and her family.
“It said ‘I love me’ and I drew a picture of me with a chair and I drew a big heart,” Haley said. “I love my family.”
Nishimoto described the unique opportunity an event like this offers those affected by cancer.
“No one else is doing it like this anywhere in the United States where we have kids come and we have friends come,” Nishimoto said. “We use it as a chance where you don’t feel so alone as you go through this journey.”
Talking with survivors, friends and family during the Oncology on Canvas events always touches Nishimoto.
“Tears always come to my eyes,” Nishimoto said. “Patients I thought would never come show up and they share some very intimate thoughts that I didn’t even know was going on with them. Their stories are so magnificent and I feel very honored that their willing to share that with us.”
| Date Taken: | 04.12.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2014 14:17 |
| Story ID: | 126058 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 330 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, Oncology on Canvas helps paint journey, by TSgt Christopher Hubenthal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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