For us life was good. Our life was filled with laughter, adventure, love and success. Things that most people would be grateful for. Life was exactly what we hoped it would be. We had bought a house, had two healthy little girls, we had a loving and supportive family and a great network of friends and successful jobs.
Our daughter Lucy, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on November 3, 2017. Looking back now, there were several red flags, but at the time we always found an excuse to cover up what was actually going on. Toward the end of October, Lucy developed a lymph node on the back of her neck. At first, we did not know it was a lymph node, and we decided it was time to see Lucy’s pediatrician. After a long conversation with Lucy’s doctors, we convinced them to order a lab draw. We wanted to confirm that Lucy was healthy. The following day, Lucy’s labs were drawn. Within a split second our lives would forever be changed.
Lucy arrived at the ER around 5pm. She checked into the ER, with a hemoglobin of 4 and was in a desperate need of a blood transfusion. A few hours later, we received the most devasting news “I’m sorry, your daughter has cancer.”
The following days were exhausting. Lucy had nurses, doctors, and other hospital staff entering her room providing care, support, and other information on what this new “cancer” journey looked like. On day two, we met with the social workers. The social workers provided descriptions and breakdowns of a few local and national organizations that were created to help families with a child who was diagnosed with cancer. We sat there listening. I remember seeing this folder. The folder was filled with information and applications for the organizations. The social workers gave instructions and asked us to fill out as many applications as we could. At that time, we were overwhelmed, we had no idea what our needs were, and we were not good at asking people for help. Kellen and I were always willing to help others and this new approach to asking for help was uncomfortable.
As our journey continued, we were able to connect with a few organizations. We were amazed by the work these organization are doing for families like ours. We quickly started learning about how families were connected with these organizations and how long did it took for a family to be connected with the available resources. As we moved forward in Lucy’s treatment, we gathered more information that reviled that connection rates with families and service providers for children with cancer was months, years, or never even connected.
We were so focused on the health of our child, we did not have the time to research and locate organization that could assist us with our families cancer journey. Families from all walks of life began contacting us about resources for childhood cancer journeys. It became clear that there was no single place to access information on all the services available to families.
Creating Bridges of Gold gives families an opportunity to connect and access resources that were created to help children with cancer. This website contains, lists of organizations by name, state, area of service, and cancer type. We have streamlined the process in locating and communicating with service providers for children with cancer. We hope to strengthen family connections by pairing families with the organizations that provide support, experience or financial assistance.
Lucy arrived at the ER around 5pm. She checked into the ER, with a hemoglobin of 4 and was in a desperate need of a blood transfusion. A few hours later, we received the most devasting news “I’m sorry, your daughter has cancer.”