Got Your Back Pack

Hi, my name is Christy. My son Ryan is a 3 time cancer survivor at the age of 14. He was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) for the first time at the age of 3, relapsed at 9 and again at 13. We have been fortunate enough to have an amazing group of friends, family and community around us for the past 10 years. I’ve been waiting until we ‘get to the other side’ to pay it forward but one of the many things I’ve learned about childhood cancer is there is no other side. Even after the child is in remission, there are still ongoing challenges from treatments. (For more information on our journey, Ryans Facebook page is Savageryan12)

During treatment and sometimes after, it’s difficult to plan for anything. The ‘plan’ is constantly changing. One of the things that is challenging for us is the unexpected trips to the ER. If Ryan has a fever of 100.7 it’s an automatic trip to the ER and in his case means being admitted for at least 48 hours. We’ve been doing this on and off for 10 years so I have a ‘Go Bag’. It’s always stocked and ready to be grabbed as we run out the door. So many families get admitted and they have nothing. No change of clothes, no toothbrush, no toiletries etc. There are families that live pretty far from the hospital with no one available to bring them anything. With Childhood Cancer Awareness month starting September 1st, we’ve decided to put together ‘Got Your Back-Packs’ to donate to the hospital. The money raised will go towards necessities to pack the bag for an unexpected hospital stay.