When a baby receives a prognosis of most cancers, mother and father can really feel overwhelmed. A brand new program helps join them with volunteers who’ve cared for kids who survived most cancers.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Devon Nonetheless is a former NFL defensive deal with who performed for the Cincinnati Bengals. He is used to tackling probably the most decided opponents and profitable. However in 2014, Nonetheless discovered himself dealing with a scenario that he’d by no means imagined. His 4-year-old daughter, Leah, had most cancers. His first response was shock.
DEVON STILL: Like, this cannot be my daughter. This cannot be my life. I used to be simply taking part in within the NFL. The whole lot was nice.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
He says family and friends supplied assist, phrases of encouragement, however generally they missed the mark.
STILL: And they might say, like, all the things occurs for a motive. And to me, whereas I do know there was good intentions behind it, it felt dismissive of how I actually felt.
KELLY: However he discovered solidarity in ready rooms with different mother and father who had been coping with comparable feelings, which is the place in the present day’s installment of Right here to Assist, our collection targeted on neighborhood and repair, goes subsequent.
STILL: We sat on that most cancers ground in a hospital with so many different households who had been going by the identical issues.
KELLY: So earlier this yr, when Devon Nonetheless heard a couple of new program that gives assist for fogeys like him, he used his platform to unfold consciousness about it. It’s known as the Hopeful Hearts Peer Mentor Program, run by the nonprofit Most cancers Hope Community. It connects mother and father dealing with a baby’s most cancers prognosis and remedy with volunteer mentors who’ve been by the identical factor.
LEE GRIER: Having the ability to speak to somebody that is been there and is on the different finish I believe simply is a lifeline for some households, for some mother and father.
SUMMERS: That is Lee Grier from Greenfield Township, Pennsylvania. She has a 13-year-old daughter whose most cancers is in remission. As a volunteer, she presents a listening ear to different mother and father in this system.
GRIER: Being able to then information somebody and know possibly not all the things that they are feeling, however figuring out a variety of the place they’re at, it is a present that we have been given.
KELLY: Chrissy Thomas is one other volunteer mentor from Madison, Virginia, who recollects what it was like when her daughter was identified with leukemia in 2021.
CHRISSY THOMAS: I couldn’t carry myself to say the phrase most cancers. I believe it was simply the sigma of the phrase. It was scary. And I did not know what was going to occur. Reaching that remission and getting her to the top of remedy and ringing that bell, it was enormous. After I ran throughout Hopeful Hearts on Fb, I used to be like, that is what I can do to provide again. That is the place I can begin.
KELLY: Thomas remembers the primary time she known as a dad or mum whose youngster had simply began remedy.
THOMAS: We really talked for in all probability about an hour. You already know, I gave the dad or mum the ground. Having that community of people that know precisely what you are feeling and the way you are feeling it, it is actually vital.
SUMMERS: As for Devon Nonetheless, his daughter is now 15 and most cancers free. And he appreciates that volunteers can provide assist for all attainable outcomes in preventing most cancers, even the worst.
STILL: It is a lengthy journey. There’s the prognosis, there’s in between, and hopefully, there is a remission. However for lots of households, it is accepting that their youngster has handed away. And to be educated and understanding every a part of that journey, it is actually vital to supporting households.
KELLY: Lee Grier places it this fashion.
GRIER: We won’t change the trail of what is going on to occur, however we might be there to assist households as they’re strolling it.
KELLY: Yow will discover extra tales of volunteerism in America at npr.org/heretohelp.
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