Including the fathers' perspective in holistic care. Part 1: Findings on the fathers' experience with childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

There is scant work completed on the fathers' experience with the treatment for childhood cancer. The present discussion seeks to make a contribution to deepening our holistic understanding of paediatric treatment for leukaemia by presenting findings on the paternal involvement in, and experience of, treatment for paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). The understanding will be extended in Part 2 by a detailed examination of specific issues associated with the fathers' hospital experience and in particular, the difficulties they face with restraining their child-patient for treatment.