Forty Israeli parents whose children have cancer are enjoying the sights of London on a respite break arranged by support charity Zichron Menachem.
Among the group are Tehila and Yitzchak Kadosh, whose son Yosef was diagnosed with cancer at the age of three.
After 18 months of treatment, doctors gave him the all-clear. But the cancer returned.
Now 11, Yosef is undergoing intensive treatment for the third time.
“We are so busy taking care of Yosef that there is never time to do anything for ourselves,” Mr Kadosh said.
“It’s so easy to fall into depression, to feel like you are alone in this difficult situation.
“The trip gives Tehila and I a chance to connect. We don’t get to do that much with everything going on at home.
“Zichron Menachem is like a family for us. They help in so many ways. It feels like they wrap their arms around us in a big hug. They just get it.”
Sigalit and Shimon Edri feel likewise. Their son Niv was diagnosed with leukaemia a year and a half ago. Since then, his days have been filled with cancer treatment.
Mrs Edri said Zichron Menachem’s volunteers “pick my son up off the floor and give him life. They play music with him, they make him walk up and down so he stays mobile.
“There’s a limit to how much any teenager wants his mother and how much I can help. They give him strength.”
The trip to London has been a godsend, she added. “When you have a sick child, it’s like you are on a train that’s out of control.
“I am not a wife, not the mother of my daughter. I live to take care of him.
“But this trip has helped me become myself again and has returned me to my husband. Here, Shimon and I are able to be a couple.”
Eli Seliger, Zichron Menachem’s UK director, said the Israelis have been hosted by Jewish families.
The trip was “a chance for them to offload their baggage. Some of them haven’t been out to dinner together since their child was ill. It also creates unbelievable friendships because they can connect to each other through a shared experience. They each know what the other is going through.”
