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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday January 9, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN Phone: 905-845-3824, ext. 248 Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: angela@oakvillebeaver.com PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PAPAEVANGELOU FAMILY CONNECTING WITH KIDS: At right, Christina Papaevangelou at the official launch of Upopolis, which she created with her dad Basile Papaevangelou, and today is available to children at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton. Cyberspace a healthy space for kids in hospital By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF hat began as the simple desire of two Oakville residents to help kids in need has snowballed into a oneof-a-kind program that is now poised to revolutionize children's hospitals across Canada. Early December saw the launch of Upopolis.com, the first secure online network for kids in hospital care, at McMaster W Children's Hospital in Hamilton. It's dubbed "a healthy space for kids to connect." Powered by TELUS and made available to young patients on laptops donated by Toshiba, Upopolis gives children the ability to escape the isolation and disconnection that can come with a prolonged hospital stay. "They're able to email, they're able to instant message, they're able to post to a blog and share their experiences with friends and family," said Christina Papaevangelou, who along with her dad, Basile Papaevangelou, came up with the idea for the network. "There are discussion boards where they can interact not Christina Papaevangelou only with friends and family, but other hospitalized children as well," said Christina. Providing children with easy-tounderstand information about their condition is a feature, which Basile believes sets Upopolis apart from other networks. "If you go on the Internet and do a search on leukemia it will either come back in `doctor speak' or `adult speak,' which for children, can be just as difficult to understand. So Basile Papaevangelou the Child Life people at McMaster have created an inventory of illnesses, things that kids will interact with in the hospital (IVs, CAT scans, x-rays) in a language kids can understand," said Basile. "Now a child with Crohn's disease will not get `doctor speak' when they look up that condition. They will get words that describe to them what it is, what it might feel like and how it might be treated," he said. Ironically, this network, which is intended to bring relief to children during their hospital stay, is rooted in tragedy as the desire to create it came from two hospital experiences, one fatal, the other not. In 2002 Christina was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of McMaster Children's Hospital suffering from Toxic Shock Syndrome. "The doctors and nurses took great care of me there and they essentially saved my life," said Christina. "I truly wanted to make something good come out of that experience and do See Upopolis page 12 Rec Receive up to $200 in free accessories! Expires Feb 1/08 "MASONRY & FIREPLACE DESIGN SPECIALISTS" w w w. c o b b l e s t o n e m b e r s . c a 406 SPEERS RD., OAKVILLE ACROSS FROM RONA LANSING 905.337.2066