Community support versus childhood leukemia: Unstoppable
“This is the absolute worst, I hate it! Why can’t things be normal? I just want to be myself again!"
- Jenny who has leukemia, in Episode 4, Season 1, The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia
A CBC Original TV show launched today about a 13-year-old girl diagnosed with leukemia, a type of blood cancer. Its release is during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. September is also Blood Cancer Awareness Month.
The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia, created for kids 9 + years old and their parents/family members, is special to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC), the country's largest non-profit support and services organization for people impacted by a blood cancer, and funder of blood cancer research.
“We were honoured when the producers reached out to us, in early 2023, to get involved in their show’s development as a trusted partner,” says Desiree Naylor, a LLSC community services lead who works closely with the pediatric blood cancer community in Canada.
She had the privilege of reviewing scripts for The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia. “My role was to ensure that the experience of children and families living with blood cancers – including Jenny’s type, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) – is represented with compassion and accuracy,” says Desiree.
Children and teens under the age of 18 make up about half of Canadians diagnosed with ALL. Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer, accounting for one-third of all pediatric cancer cases.
Supporting families affected by all types of blood cancer
Viewers of The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia will discover LLSC at the end of each episode where their website, bloodcancers.ca, is displayed. (LLSC shares the end-screen with KidsHelpPhone.ca, an unrelated free national support service.)
“We’re grateful that the show is helping to generate awareness of blood cancers and LLSC, and we’re hoping viewers will reach out to us if they could benefit from our free blood cancer support, services, resources and events,” says Desiree.
Mindy Laxer, SVP & Co-Executive Producer, Apartment 11 Productions which jointly produced the show, says “LLSC was amazing from the very start, so open and generous with their time and knowledge, enthusiasm and support.” She adds, “with a show like this, it’s important to know you’re making something authentic. LLSC helped with that as a collaborator.”
In the show, Jenny Garcia is a young teenager who lives with her widowed father, a working-class immigrant raising her and younger brother, Marc. They don’t have a lot of money – but what they do have is each other, and their Filipino and multicultural community in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto.
Multicultural community featured in the show
The show had premiere screenings on Sept. 5th including at the Kababayan Multicultural Centre in Toronto, which serves the local immigrant community including Filipinos.
Daniela Sinisi, a LLSC community services lead, was there sharing some of the organization’s pediatric leukemia resources (such as the Spider-Mable vs leukemia’ activity book she’s shown here holding beside Jassleen Joy Cruz, a counsellor of newcomer settlement services at Kababayan.)
“Cancer doesn’t just affect one person – it touches the whole family, and beyond that, the community,” says Desiree. “Seeing that reality reflected on the screen can really help families feel seen.”
Mindy says she was grateful when Desiree shared that sibling(s) of a child or teen with cancer can get overlooked, and they suffer, too. “As a result, we made sure little brother Marc’s journey is given attention in the show.”
The Garcia’s neighbourhood community is a big part of The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia because “a key message for us is ‘you cannot heal in a silo,’” says Mindy.
“That resonates with LLSC’s own message to the blood cancer community: ‘You are not alone,’” says Desiree.
Visit LLSC’s ‘My child has a blood cancer’ section for access to personalized support, to read other Canadians’ experience with pediatric blood cancers, and to get easy-to-understand resources (videos, podcasts, factsheets, and more).
You can watch all Season 1 episodes of The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia at gem.CBC.ca or on the CBC Gem app. A CBC Original, THE UNSTOPPABLE JENNY GARCIA is produced by Apartment 11 Productions and Avenida Productions, and is produced with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, Telus Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the Quebec Film and Television Tax Credit, and was developed with the participation of the Bell Fund.