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The ANKKER counselling service (for children of parents with cancer) offered a special break at the beginning of May. Together with the NCT Heidelberg and the North Baden Psychosocial Cancer Counselling Centre, eleven families with a parent suffering from cancer were able to leave everyday life behind and relax for two days.

The weekend at the Manfred Sauer Foundation in Lobbach enabled them to spend quality time together, relax and socialise. Parents, children and young people were able to work together in workshops, experience themselves as a family team on a rally through the grounds, try their hand at archery, make jewellery in a creative workshop or get into conversation while making bread on a stick by the fire in the evening.

For Cindy Körner, breast cancer patient and spokesperson for the Patient Research Council at the NCT Heidelberg, and her family, the weekend was a valuable break from the everyday life of a family with a mother suffering from cancer. She says: "The programme was lovely and very well thought out - plenty of time for discussion, rest and family time. True to the initial motto: 'Everything can, nothing must! And as if that wasn't wonderful enough, they also found a breathtakingly great location and booked the perfect weather. The children spent a lot of time outdoors. At the frog pond, with the chickens or - like mine - on the racetrack. And they were visibly happy and carefree."

After two days full of new impressions and encounters, the participants and organisers agreed: this offer should be repeated! Cindy Körner says: "I would like the programme to continue in the future so that as many families as possible can make such wonderful memories."

The time-out for families was organised for the first time this year. The programme was made possible by a private donation from a family that had been supported by ANKKER for a long time. Katrin Willig from the psycho-oncological outpatient clinic at the NCT Heidelberg: "We would like to offer a weekend like this again, because we have seen how good it is for the families and how much energy and confidence they take away with them."