A children’s author and poet is leading a call for Surrey nominations for a national award scheme for youngsters affected by cancer.

In the South East, around 490 children and young people are diagnosed with the disease every year. Inspired by the words of young cancer patients, Joseph Aaron Coelho OBE FRSL, the former Children’s Laureate, has published a heartfelt new poem called Courage Looks Like Me.

The poignant piece marks the launch of this year’s Cancer Research UK for Children & Young People Star Awards.

The Star Awards pay tribute to the courage of children with cancer and is open to all under 18s who live in the UK and have been treated for the disease within the past five years. There is no judging panel because the charity believes every child diagnosed with cancer deserves special recognition.

Mr Coelho said: “I was surprised by the children’s contributions. They came up with some beautifully poetic, sincere, emotive language and I learnt so much from their imaginative and moving choice of imagery. I felt that I was hearing stories and reading words and ideas that came from a deep well of experience.

“They were willing to talk about their strengths, but also their challenges too, and that’s a particularly difficult thing for any of us to do - to talk about the times where we’ve been vulnerable.

“There’s a maturity that sets these children apart, because of what they’ve been through and that deserves to be acknowledged. The Star Awards are a brilliant initiative and I’m proud that our poem can play a part in raising awareness so that more children - in the South East and across the UK – can be recognised for their courage and resilience in the face of cancer.”

Aged between five and nine, children from across the UK who have received cancer treatment provided the poet with a revealing insight into their world when asked what courage looked and felt like to them.

Their touching imagery informs some of the most powerful lines in the new poem, where courage is described as: “a fully charged battery living on the edge of uncertainty”; “the smooth and bump of a scar”; the “SWOOSH of a superhero” and “bouncy,” as one girl said, because she gets nervous before every medical procedure.

The Star Awards help to shine a light on some of the unique challenges faced by young people affected by cancer – challenges that Cancer Research UK is working to tackle through developing more effective and less toxic treatments.

Cancer in children and young people is different to cancer in adults, from the types of cancer that affect the age group to the long-term effects of treatment such as hearing loss and infertility.

That’s why Cancer Research UK funds a dedicated clinical trials unit for children’s cancers. It’s the only one of its kind in the UK and coordinates groundbreaking research which aims to influence clinical practice, improve patient care and reduce the side effects of treatment.