Long before she set out on the life-changing college journey, junior Anna Ferris experienced a different type of alteration to her everyday routine — one that, unlike college, left her father's survival in question.

Ferris learned at age 11 that her dad had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Her father, in his mid-40s at the time, was given an estimated 60 days from time of diagnosis to live without treatment.

Ferris' parents first told her brother, then 16, before bringing the news to Ferris and her 4-year-old sister.

"They didn't tell at first, I think, because they didn't want to worry me," she said.

According to researchers at the UW School of Nursing, this reservation is common among parents newly diagnosed with cancer.

When Mommy or Daddy Get Cancer: A Cancer Parenting Program, is a project designed by Dr. Frances Lewis, a professor of family and child nursing, to aid parents recently diagnosed with cancer in gaining skills and confidence to enhance parenting quality while helping both children and parents with transitioning behaviors and emotions.

"We want the parents to see themselves as confident," Lewis said. "The program we give to the parents is making the assumption the children are going to benefit from it."

The project will focus on a clinic-based parenting program, formed by the researchers, to evaluate the short-term impact on both the parent and child.

Though the materials for the program have already been developed, the team was recently awarded a $224,000 research grant from the Lance Armstrong Foundation to aid in the evaluation process and make the program free of charge.

"The research award was given to us to evaluate the short-term impact of the intervention on the psychosocial adjustment of the diagnosed parent and school-age child," Lewis said.

Parents will go through a five-session series one on one with a specially trained nurse clinician. Each meeting will provide education on "how to be a better parent with cancer," Lewis said.

"[Parents] have booklet reading and conversations [with the child]. ... They practice their skills with their learning in session," said Mary Ellen Shands, recruitment manager and patient educator for the program.

The researchers have specially developed the booklets to help parents not only to teach their kids the science of cancer, but also to feel comfortable addressing children's worries.

"It's not just about the biology," Lewis said. "It's about the questions and concerns."

Sessions are one hour every other week. Topics include "Anchoring yourself so you can help your child" and "Being a detective of your child's coping."

"Each session gives parents skills and ways to help the child [learn] about the cancer, as well as [to] help themselves be calm and supportive with their child," Lewis said.

The first phase of the study looked only at mothers with breast cancer. Because the pilot program was successful with these patients, the research team expanded it to child-rearing parents of both genders with all types of cancer.

According to the report, melanoma, colorectal, lymphoma and breast cancers are the most common found in child-rearing parents in the study's recruitment counties, with about 108,264 school-aged children affected by these in 2006.

Of 29 parents with cancer interviewed in the initial study, only one reported that she asked her child about its fears.

"The bottom line is the parents either don't talk to the child and wait for the child to ask questions, don't talk to the kids at all or give them the biological details," Lewis said.

Ferris said she began asking questions as soon as her mother explained her father's situation. Hair loss, frequent vomiting and the possibility of death were among her concerns.

"I asked if he could die," Ferris said. "I didn't ask if he was going to, but I asked if he could."

Many children interviewed in Lewis' study had nightmares and created unreal and frightening images of the cancer. Eighty-one percent of the children feared their parent might die, even if the parent was diagnosed with early-stage, potentially curable cancer.

"The data says there [are] often more catastrophic and horrific [ideas in their minds] than the facts," Lewis said. "The majority fears the parents are going to die from cancer."

For Ferris, however, fear of death was not the greatest concern.

"I understood that he could die," Ferris said. "It's not that I was naive to the fact; I just didn't make it a part of my reality."

She partially attributed this to her father's positive attitude. He would often shed light on his condition by making voices and naming various hospital instruments.

"My dad was so funny," Ferris said. "I wasn't as scared because he wasn't scared."

To be eligible for the program, parents must have an 8- to 12-year-old child, have been diagnosed for the first time with early-stage cancer within the past seven months, speak and read English, live in the Puget Sound area and have told their child about the cancer.

Ferris' father, who survived after a bone marrow transplant and remains in remission 10 years later, was in a later stage of cancer than those in Lewis' program. His condition became a part of the Ferris family's everyday life, which may have made it easier to deal with, Ferris said.

"I think [Lewis'] program would probably be most useful when [the parent has] less intense cancer," Ferris said. "When [the disease becomes] your life and you have no other choice, you kind of adapt to it."

Reach reporter Meghan Peters at features@thedaily.washington.edu.