HEROES OF RVA | 2016
These are the stories collected from families, caretakers, and doctors at the Children's Hospital of Richmond. They are only a small representation of the patients and families who are treated here every year. Pediatric cancer research is widely and devastatingly underfunded, receiving only 4% of the total money that the federal government allocates for cancer research. It's our hope to make Richmond the epicenter of change and breakthrough for these children. A HUGE thank you to Connor's Heroes Foundation for their unwavering support to these families, and the path they paved for this project to happen.
"When we tell people he has Leukemia, they almost sound relieved. But a 90% survival rate is not 100%. If your kid ends up being the 10%, that 90% doesn’t really matter, does it? And you have to face that." read more
"He’d had no symptoms at all before that; he had barely missed a day of school that year. So his doctor sent us for an ultrasound. He said, 'it could be something, it could be nothing.' " read more
"I actually have a bit of a queasy stomach. When I told my mom that I wanted to go to nursing school, she laughed. She said, 'you still freak out when you get shots.' " read more
"This is pretty much our new normal. It’s hard to remember what life was like before Lauren got sick." read more
"I wonder if maybe I should have prepared him better- if I should have said to him, 'This is happening...it’s close now.' But I think maybe he would have panicked and I didn’t want him to be scared. And I think I was still waiting for a miracle in the 11th hour." read more
"Sometimes, we don’t have answers. And if I don’t have the answer, then I tell them that. But I also promise them that I won’t stop working until I find it. Because that’s exactly what I would want someone to do for my boys." read more
"Ellie is proof that there’s a bigger story. She is living, breathing, evidence that sometimes, hope shows up disguised as heartbreak." read more
“After Abbie got sick, she began talking about wanting a sister. She wanted us to adopt another little girl, and she wouldn’t let it go. It actually took us three years to find out that we could go to Hungary and get Melissza." read more
If these stories have made an impact on you, you can do something that will, in turn, have a direct impact on these families and those who are taking care of them. It's never too late to close the gap on funding childhood cancer research.