TLC's Shauna Rae And One Very Special Duck Are Helping Children With Cancer

In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Shauna Rae, the star of the TLC show "I Am Shauna Rae" has teamed up with Aflac to spread more awareness of the importance of emotionally supporting children and families undergoing cancer treatment.

Treating a child with cancer isn't just about the physical aspect, but also the mental and emotional side as well. Shauna, who knows firsthand how empathy and kindness plays an important role in cancer treatment and recovery, is helping Aflac to share information about the My Special Aflac Duck and tips on how to emotionally support a child going through cancer treatment.

Shauna fully understands the role that empathy plays in cancer treatment and recovery and teamed up with Aflac to help spread awareness during September in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Shauna was diagnosed with brain cancer not long after birth and underwent chemotherapy that affected her growth hormones.

“I was born with brain cancer. At 6 months, it was diagnosed. I went into immediate surgery and chemotherapy and later in life at 16, I was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism," she told The Blast exclusively.

"So, my overall journey was very focused on that physical impact. And a lot of the social, mental, emotional toll that happened were overshadowed by surviving and dealing with my dwarfism. That’s why I’m here today with Aflac to bring awareness to the emotional, social and mental toll that childhood cancer can have besides just the physical impact and the survivorship.”

Shauna wants everyone to understand that there's an emotional impact that comes with having cancer and having a support system, empathy and understanding is crucial.

"When it comes to the emotional impact that comes with cancer, people within the community, people that are in the medical part of the community, family members or people that are just everyday coming into contact with these people, it can be very important for you to have that support system," she said.

"For them to be positive, for them to be just that emotional stability because overall going through cancer can be a very lonely feeling, and that’s why community and things like the My Special Aflac Duck are so very important for making the child or making the cancer survivor or cancer battler, understand they’re not going through this alone. Their feelings are understood and not rejected.”

The My Special Aflac Duck helps children undergoing treatments for cancer or other illnesses in many different ways. It's been given to more than 24,000 children so far.

"It's benefited the emotional and social cues of these kids because it allows them to express themselves," Shauna told The Blast. "It allows them to have an animatronic or robotic duck that relates to those emotions and have those emotional cues. It can help calm them down when they’re nervous. It has a heartbeat and it’s just something that makes you feel that you’re not fighting alone.” 

According to the Aflac Childhood Cancer Campaign's website, "This soft and cuddly companion helps children prepare for medical procedures, communicate their feelings, practice distraction techniques and so much more."

"I think it’s important to know that Aflac has done so much to help with the integration of cancer patients into the real world, and dealing with all of the treatments and all of the social and mental and just all those things that you don’t think about that come with cancer," Shauna continued.

"Aflac is literally trying to target, as well as work on survivorship, and the physical toll. They created the My Special Aflac Duck which helps children relate their feelings to their outside people - their doctors, their families, their friends - and also helps the child not feel alone and it gives them comfort during their treatments which is so very important."

Dr. James Klosky, a Pediatric Psychologist at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, also explained the importance of not ignoring the emotional side of childhood cancer.

“We were talking today about some of the developmental disruptions that frequently happen with kids who have or on treatment for cancer. For example, if they’re diagnosed with leukemia, they are literally in and out of the hospital for three years. Developmentally, they’re gonna miss some of those typical experiences that we have in middle school or that we have in high school," he explained. 

"So, one of the things that we’ve been talking about that’s very important is that when kids in our community are interfacing with survivors of childhood cancer to really lead with kindness. There’s no question that a diagnosis of childhood cancer and the treatment of childhood cancer can be traumatic for patients and for families. But many of our survivors also report things like post dramatic growth and resiliency as a result of treatment."

In the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorder Center, tolerance, acceptance and inclusion can help survivors to best integrate with their community after cancer treatment and to help them resume their lives with as little disruption as possible.

"Really, so frequently with our kids, of course, we take a developmental perspective that, we work with a 3-year-old differently than we work with a 10-year-old, than we work with an 18-year-old. We really hear messages that folks want as much as possible to return to a more typical, normal life," he continued. "So anything we can do to support that and to help the patients meet whatever their personal goals are, here at Aflac, we’re here for it and work with not only the patients but the families as well.”

Through two seasons of her hit TLC show, "I Am Shauna Rae," the 24-year-old has been able to spread awareness and educate her fans on childhood cancer and life after cancer. She hopes to continue that with her partnership with Aflac.

“I think overall, the show came into the way it is now and building that awareness because we wanted to make a difference and I wanted to show the world that you can have a positive impact and survive cancer and yet still deal with the physical, mental, social, emotional toll that comes with it for the rest of your life. You don't have to live so negatively, and you don’t have to live in fear," she told The Blast.

"When the show came into contact with the rest of the world, it really took it by storm and raised the awareness and that’s why I’m continuing working with Aflac to raise that awareness on cancer and sickle cell patients, because at the end of the day, the more awareness we have out there, the better the rest of the community is education wise and the more empathy we have towards each other which is so necessary.”

When asked if there will be a season three, Shauna said she can't speak on that at this time, but her priority remains the same - "raising the awareness, making sure disabled people, people with differences, people that feel like they're an outcast know that there is a supportive community out there for them and that they can always find the bright side."

Shauna keeps her mission strong with the use of her social media pages as she often answers fan questions to help educate the public as best she can. With an active TikTok page and Instagram, she reaches more than a million people with her videos, photos and informative captions.