Children with Cancer UK (CwCUK) is the leading national children’s charity dedicated to the fight against childhood cancer. They were keen to update the support they offer parents of children with cancer by providing them with reliable information about some of the key treatments their child might receive. They also wanted to help parents spot any potential warning signs by refreshing their online information about symptoms of different childhood cancers. They approached me to write the new content.
For the cancer treatments I worked on pages about chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. There’s a lot of information out there about these treatments for adults with cancer, but there’s relatively little about children. That meant my work began with research into the specifics of these treatments for children and young people. I went on to write the pages based on the most common questions received by CwCUK, as well as common online search queries which had been identified by their digital agency.
I wrote with as broad an audience in mind as possible, conscious that every child’s situation and treatment would be different. I was also very aware that some people might be visiting the pages shortly after receiving a diagnosis, so the content needed to be sympathetic to this. I found a balance by providing a broad range of information but writing it clearly and succinctly, so that the reader wasn’t overwhelmed by detail.
I approached the symptoms pages in a similar way, basing them on common web search terms and on the existing pages CwCUK had on their website. As with the cancer treatments, symptoms in children can differ from those experienced by adults with the same disease. I carried out research before writing, making sure that everything we said was relevant and accurate.
Shingi Parirenyatwa, Digital Marketing Manager at Children with Cancer UK, was pleased with the work and explained the impact they’ve seen already:
“We’ve benefited from the content Richard provided, as our keywords for the treatment and symptoms pages have been organically ranking highly in the SERPs since we updated the copy.”
Read the full version of what Shingi said about working with me.
It was a real privilege to work on this project. The work we did together will provide information which could ensure an early diagnosis of a child’s cancer, as well as providing parents with clear information about treatments at such a difficult time.