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WORCESTER (CBS) A student program at UMass Medical School is helping take the fear out of medical treatments for some children.

Hospitals are frightening to any child, but for children with life-threatening illnesses, who get poked and prodded, sometimes for years, the school offers something like a big brother program that makes going through treatment just a little bit easier.

Dr. Naheed Usmani, a pediatric oncologist, developed the program called Sidekicks that matches medical students with very sick children undergoing treatment at UMass Medical Center in Worcester.

The medical students find it very meaningful. It really anchors them why they went into medicine which you can really lose in the first two years of basic science, he told WBZ-TV.

Christian Campero, 6, of Northborough and second-year medical student Walter Palmer are among those who were paired.

Christian has leukemia, and the road hasnt been an easy one.

Read more from the original source:

UMass Sidekicks Program Matches Medical Students With Sick Children