Karate kids kick cancer

ROME – Young Italian cancer patients are to be trained to give a karate kick to their disease as part of the international Kids Kicking Cancer (KKC) campaign which has just arrived in the capital.

 Founded in 1999 by American black belt pediatrics professor Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, known as "Rabbi G" to his students, KKC aims to give young cancer patients injections of energy and courage by teaching them the principles of the martial arts. Now, for the first time, these techniques are being introduced into the Italian paediatric healthcare system at the prestigious Bambino Gesù children’s hospital in Rome.

 As a father who lost his two-year-old daughter to leukaemia 30 years ago, Rabbi Goldberg was disillusioned by the treatment to which his child was subjected. A few years later, he witnessed a screaming five-year-old boy being held down by nurses who were trying to inject his chest with a large syringe. He asked for five minutes alone with the child, during which he taught him some Tai-chi breathing techniques. Twenty minutes later, as the nurse removed the syringe from his chest, the child asked: “Have you done it yet?”

 Scientific studies are placing increasing importance on the need for psychological support of children in hospitals. According to one study carried out last year in the US, 88.1 per cent of the children helped by Kids Kicking Cancer experienced a significant decrease in pain.

 “We used to teach that there is a pain centre in the brain, but this is not true,” said Rabbi Goldberg at a press conference at the Bambino Gesù hospital. “There is an entire neuro-matrix. If a child is angry and afraid and feels that there is no purpose to the pain, then the pain is increased.”

 “It is not just children's bodies but their minds, their spirits and their souls,” he added. “It is therefore necessary to treat the whole child as well as their family.” 

 ‘Power, Peace and Purpose’ is the slogan that encapsulates the KKC mission. “Power,” explains Rabbi Goldberg, “is the ability to breathe in light and energy and feel powerful. By Peace, we mean the ability to calm ourselves and push out pain, anger and difficulty, and Purpose is when we tell the kids that they are teaching the world.”

 Once the children know their objective, they are “transformed from victims into winners and masters.”

 After a successful campaign in the US, the organisation caught the attention of Italian doctor Fanny La Monica, now the current director of the Kids Kicking Cancer organisation in Italy, who has committed herself to spreading the campaign around the world. La Monica hopes to broaden the organisation’s horizons, not only in terms of the countries in which it operates but the children that it helps. “It will not only be for kids affected by cancer. In a few years’ time, kids will be kicking all kinds of illnesses.”         

 Professor Franco Locatelli, director of the oncology department at Bambino Gesù, emphasised the importance of  “360° care” which combines the “physical” with the “psychological and the social.”

 Massimiliano Raponi, the director of healthcare at Bambino Gesù expressed his enthusiasm for the organisation’s work: “Every day we commit ourselves to the care and enhancement of the quality of life of our young patients and to finding new opportunities for improvement.”

 Afterwards, the speakers were joined by karate instructor Mark Palermo and two children being treated for cancer at the hospital who gave a demonstration of the martial arts techniques that they use. These included the use of a punching pad as a representation of aspects of their treatment that they hate the most - including nausea - and, sadly, certain doctors.

 For more information of Children Kicking Cancer and to find out how you can support the organisation, go to www.powerpeacepurpose.com/donations