{"id":30,"date":"2016-05-17T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?p=30"},"modified":"2016-06-17T15:59:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T15:59:00","slug":"schooling-jori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/schooling-jori\/","title":{"rendered":"Schooling Jori"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cJorianna was so bullied in school; there were times she couldn\u2019t get into her classroom safely. Then, just two weeks into her new school, she was diagnosed with cancer. She missed all of grade seven. After her treatments, CBE tried to place her in grade eight, but Jori just couldn\u2019t go back. She was paralyzed with fear. She hasn\u2019t been back to school since. But her tutoring sessions with Anna are helping to change this.\u201d ~ Sharon Boutin<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When Jori was 12, she was diagnosed with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer that forms in the connective tissue. That was in 2013. Since that time, both her mother Sharon and her Aunt Marina have also been diagnosed with cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although anxiety is common among childhood cancer survivors, rampant family cancer and schoolyard bullies pushed Jori\u2019s fear to a whole new level. At age 13, returning to school\u2014bald and vulnerable\u2014was just too much for her. Jori just couldn\u2019t make herself go back to school.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Anna
Jorianna Boutin\u2019s (R) weekly tutoring sessions with Kids Cancer Care volunteer Anna Dabowski have helped her to rebuild her confidence as she gets ready to return to school after cancer treatments.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so frustrating,\u201d says Jori\u2019s mother Sharon Boutin. \u201cEven psychiatrists, medical doctors, don\u2019t get it. They say her cancer is gone and she needs to forget it, but they don\u2019t understand that fear. The fear that it may return. I don\u2019t know if that fear ever goes away. Once you have cancer, there\u2019s no going back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, there is someone who understands that fear\u2014Anna Dabrowski, Jori\u2019s volunteer tutor who gives Jori weekly lessons in math and English through Kids Cancer Care\u2019s<\/span> Education Support Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anna is also a cancer survivor, diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at 16. Like Jori, she knows what it\u2019s like to be a teenager and lose her hair. She also knows what it\u2019s like to be on chemotherapy, to be tired and nauseous all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Jori and Anna have a lot in common. Sometimes they spend the better part of the tutoring session just talking. They talk about their cancer journeys, their battle scars and the after effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDid your hair grow back curly and brown?\u201d asks Jori brightly. \u201cMine did. It used to be blonde. Now it\u2019s brunette.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tara
Jorianna Boutin (L) and Tara McCool of MEG Energy get ready for the 2016 High Hopes Challenge.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with many childhood cancer survivors, these two established an\u00a0<\/span>instant bond. It\u2019s a relationship that has been key to Jori\u2019s healing and recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen big changes in Jori since she started tutoring with Anna last September,\u201d says Mom. \u201cShe\u2019s back in karate again and starting to see her friends again. She\u2019s even participating in the<\/span> High Hopes Challenge<\/a> this year. We\u2019re starting to see our Jo Jo come back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anna has seen a big change in Jori too. \u201cShe started off very quiet,\u201d says Anna. \u201cBut she\u2019s super confident now. She\u2019s much more focused. She knows she can do it and figure it out\u2014whatever the problem may be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jori\u2019s anxiety has been so debilitating that she hasn\u2019t seen the inside of classroom in two years. Now she\u2019s working on a plan to gradually re-enter the classroom by volunteering in a grade-four classroom <\/span>\"Tara<\/span>until she\u2019s ready to be in a classroom with her peers.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot at stake for Jori when it comes to education. Jori wants to be a marine biologist, which will demand a serious amount of schooling. She loves animals, especially marginalized and misunderstood animals such as snakes and spiders and sharks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dream is to swim with sharks one day,\u201d says Jori. \u201cNot in a cage but freely beside them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJo Jo\u2019s the kind of kid that butterflies flock to and land on,\u201d says Sharon. \u201cA butterfly once landed on her nose at a butterfly conservatory and stayed there forever. She has this innate kindness and still center that animals immediately recognize.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With the help of Anna, her parents and older brother Jari, Jorianna is bravely adopting strategies to manage her anxiety. One day, she\u2019ll make an amazing marine biologist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for helping young people like Jori realize their dreams and potential through our new Education Support Program.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cJorianna was so bullied in school; there were times she couldn\u2019t get into her classroom safely. Then, just two weeks into her new school, she was diagnosed with cancer. She missed all of grade seven. After her treatments, CBE tried to place her in grade eight, but Jori just couldn\u2019t go back. She was paralyzed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}