[1] The children attending, aged from seven to seventeen, come from Ireland and more than twenty other European countries to take part in activities the camp provides such as arts and crafts, canoeing and outdoor adventure.

After successfully overcoming the initial challenge of these activities, the camp says that children stop seeing themselves as 'sick kids' and begin to regain their own inner strength, confidence and self-esteem through therapeutic recreation.

[2] While hospitals are intended to take care of the physical aspects of serious illness in a child, Barretstown plays a vital role in healing the effects of emotional scars.

[3] The programme of therapeutic recreation the camp provides is widely endorsed by many [vague] leading medical professionals in Ireland and abroad as having invaluable benefits to a child's confidence and self-esteem and is recognised as being a vital part in their recovery from cancer and other serious illnesses.

By getting comfortable in the protected and safe camp environment, the children begin to realise their previously unrecognised potential, through meeting the challenges with success, which has an enormous effect on their confidence and self-esteem.