Even though Linda Ellerbee has addressed many tough topics with young audiences, it took a decade before Nickelodeon approved her idea of a Nick News episode in which children with terminal illnesses talk about their lives.
Her show, Before I Go ... Living With Dying, features four children who are incurably ill as they discuss losing friends, fears for themselves and others and their changed outlook on life.
Ellerbee, who has been making Nick News shows for 24 years, says she began pitching the idea 10 years ago, after she worked as a hospice volunteer and came into contact with children who were dying.
“I felt that it was an important show, not because half the kids in America are dying – they’re not – but because children have many questions about this,” she says. “It’s such an unknown to them.”
Eventually, “I think I just wore them down”, she says of network executives.
Nickelodeon spokesman David Bittler says the network worked hard with Ellerbee to make sure the programme wasn’t scary or too sad and was ultimately uplifting.
“We produced the special once we felt we got it absolutely right, and we are very proud of this episode,” he says.
Rhett, one of the children profiled, was successfully treated for brain cancer but learnt eight months later that it had returned. His mother had to tell him that he could not be cured and that it was up to the 13-year-old to decide whether to keep going with treatments. He decided to stop – tired of being poked and prodded.
He is shown riding on a four-wheeler outside his Missouri home, saying that when he’s riding he doesn’t feel he has cancer. He also says that life has more meaning to him now than it did before he had cancer.
Nohemy, a 15-year-old who also has brain cancer, is planning her funeral – she wants uplifting music and people to wear clothes featuring her favourite colour, blue. She also worries about her parents.
“I try to act strong because I don’t want my parents to see me crying,” she says.
Some of the children are dealing with education issues – they want more schooling but often the authorities don’t want to provide it or believe that the sick children can’t handle it.
Some also have trouble holding onto friends, who often back off because of awkwardness.
Each of the four featured children was alive when the show screened in the United States on Sunday. Details of a Middle East broadcast are not available.
When she was growing up, Ellerbee says the young daughter of a family friend died of leukaemia and she always wished to talk to someone about it. Ellerbee hopes that parents who are reluctant to allow their children to watch Before I Go ... Living With Dying choose to watch it with them – as she believes that children who are dying can teach healthy children about living.
“Nick was hesitant at first and I understood that,” she says. “It ran the risk of being a very depressing show, but I didn’t think it would be. Yes, it would be a sad show, but that wouldn’t necessarily be depressing.
“You see a good deal of courage in the show. You see kids’ bravery overcoming their fear of dying.”
