Xploro, the app that helps children being treated for cancer understand what’s happening to them, is being offered, free of charge, to patients in the UK undergoing treatment during the coronavirus crisis.
The move is designed not only to help children and young people in these difficult times, but also to alleviate pressure on the healthcare organisations that usually fund and distribute the software.
As the parent of a child who has been treated for cancer, Xploro Co-founder and chief executive, Dom Raban, understands from first-hand experience how careful families have to be and how important it is for the child to remain infection free during treatment.
This, coupled with the current restrictions in place because of the coronavirus crisis, and a health service pushed to near breaking point, has prompted him to offer the state-of-the-art app directly to children isolated at home.
Xploro helps children better understand their treatment in a number of ways. There are games based on the human body, 3D hospital environments which they can explore, and interactive experiences showing them what’s going to happen when they undergo procedures such as MRI scans, X-rays or ultrasound.
The partnership with Xploro was a natural fit for Thinking of Oscar due to the way in which the application empowers children at a time when there are many other factors which are outside of their control
Everything is delivered by a chirpy, augmented-reality character that the child creates and names themselves. It becomes their virtual friend, and leads them through every part of the Xploro app, as well as being the face of a patent-pending, artificially-intelligent chatbot.
Speaking of his decision, Raban said: “I can’t begin to imagine how much more difficult it is now to take care of a child during treatment, with greatly-heightened fear of infection, little or no contact with support workers, and restrictions on visitors while in hospital. That’s why we’ve decided to make some short-term changes to the way people can sign up to Xploro and offer it for free to any family in the UK with a child currently going through cancer treatment.“I really hope Xploro plays some small part in helping children and their families feel less anxious in these extraordinarily-difficult times.”
The offer has been made possible with generous support from the charity, Thinking of Oscar, which has helped to subsidise the cost of making the app freely available.
David Cole, co-founder of the charity, said: “The partnership with Xploro was a natural fit for Thinking of Oscar due to the way in which the application empowers children at a time when there are many other factors which are outside of their control.”
