Cards make a difference

I believe in saving kids with cancer. I don’t have cancer and hopefully never will. However, growing up I had a peer who got leukemia and had to leave school for years. I remember when his desk was empty and finally the teacher told us he wouldn’t be coming back to school. We sent cards to him and sometimes he would get to visit. No matter what, it didn’t bring him back to school and it definitely didn’t get rid of his cancer. I don’t think we realized how much those cards could affect the way Mark felt.

I don’t really know if it’s my friend’s story or I was born with it, but I have always wanted to be involved with St. Jude Hospital. When I came to UNC-Wilmington I hadn’t really heard of any connections. During my junior year, however, a friend asked if I wanted to be on the executive board of a new organization they were bringing to campus for St. Jude. My life is busy. I literally had about 30 minutes a day of free time and that was spent trying to get my homework done. I am lucky if I get to take five minutes to breathe so when he said “Do you want to join?" my brain stopped there. I was on overload. But when I heard St. Jude I immediately was on board.

We got the organization up and running and went to visit the hospital. It is exactly like you see it in the papers or on TV. The halls are filled with colored murals and nurses that lead to different areas of the hospital. There is one area where children go to get treatments. When I walked in I saw kids lying in radio flyer wagons with masks over their faces, no hair and obviously no energy. There were two kids putting a puzzle together, with masks on their face. My heart dropped. I’m not sure if it’s because I felt bad or because I couldn’t believe how happy they were in a situation like this. I walked through the tour with a lump in my throat holding back the tears, both happy and sympathetic.

St. Jude does so many amazing things to make such a tragedy seem like a day at Carowinds Theme Park, even for the families (except maybe not as chaotic). They have a whole area for kids that have a ton of things to play with and they have parties for the kids where they can invite friends when they go off of their treatments. This experience showed me what a difference small, thoughtful things can make in their lives.

Going to St. Jude Children's Hospital made me believe in doing anything possible to help bring this happiness to kids with cancer. Our school so far has raised almost $35,000 for St. Jude and it is only the first year at UNCW. I’m not sure if my friend, Mark, ever looks at the cards we sent him, but I do know that at the time those cards gave him strength to survive one more day. This is why I believe in saving kids with cancer.