For many families navigating childhood cancer, traveling for treatment is not just a logistical necessity – it is a deeply emotional, physical, and financial challenge. Even families living in suburban areas report being overwhelmed by commutes and traffic. For those traveling longer distances and even across provinces, the hardships are even more profound – compounding the physical and emotional toll of cancer care with financial instability, separation from family, responsibilities at home, and exhaustion resulting from frequent travel. These factors can negatively impact the overall wellbeing of both the child and their family, making it crucial to address these barriers to ensure equitable access to care.

A comprehensive report from the Cancer in Young People in Canada (CYP-C) program highlighted the challenges faced by pediatric cancer patients and their families. The report emphasized the importance of timely access to specialized care and the need for support systems to mitigate the impact of travel. However, there remains a lack of Canadian data that quantifies the true impact of travel on pediatric patients and their families. Following the successful completion of a survey of adult blood cancer patients by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) in January 2025 – with 487 participants reporting long travel times, reduced incomes, and months-long separations from family – the need to examine the experiences of families, and to quantify the true impact of traveling for treatment, in the setting of pediatric cancer became clear.

Born from an aspirational goal to see more treatments delivered in communities and to provide holistic support for treatments in which travel is a necessity, ACCESS, LLSC and other pediatric focused cancer organization have partnered to develop and launch a national survey to evaluate the physical, social, and financial impacts of travel to treatment on children with pediatric cancer and their families, and to compare these impacts across communities and geographies. This study will generate the critical evidence needed to:

1. Better understand the true burden of travel on the pediatric cancer community in Canada; and
2. Support concrete, data-driven recommendations to improve access to care, inform advocacy efforts and shape policies that prioritize families affect by all childhood cancers – no matter where they live.

For more information, please contact Tricia Schneider.