Many thanks to all those that have participated in our initiative to help expand our program and serve more families facing cancer. Congratulations to Guy Romano for winning the contest! With your generosity, we hope to reach out to four families in the next four months from various regions in the country.
Sadly, our first Baltimore family has faced a tremendous loss.
Sarah and her husband Eric are from Elkton, MD and Sarah was treating at a Johns Hopkins facility for melanoma. She was nominated to our program by her nurse, Joann, in June. With the help of our program coordinators, we planned a respite vacation to the FPS home near Orlando, Florida this month. Sadly, Sarah passed away unexpectedly from this disease. She was thirty one years old and leaves behind her beloved husband and two small children, ages two and eight. Please keep her in your prayers. As with all families in our program, we have provided Eric with some grief books to help in the healing process for himself and his children.
Although we were not able to provide this family with a respite, we know that the generosity they felt through the planning process has offered some peace and comfort. We will continue to reach out to Eric to ensure him that our caring and compassionate community sends positive thoughts his family’s way.
We have established some tremendous relationships with oncology professionals through our relationship with the Oncology Nurses Society in those locations that house the Phillips Corporation. This month, we did a phone training with the ONS President in Greensboro, NC and in October, we are presenting to the ONS chapter of nurses in Baltimore. We will continue to reach out to ONS members near Oakdale, CA. Further, we are registering as a nonprofit charity in Canada so all donations are tax deductible from this country.
We thank you for your support of our mission. Let us keep Sarah’s words in our mind about the importance of respite as we continue our collaborative:
Providing this respite to us would allow our family to spend some quality time together without the burdens and distractions of everyday life. Quality time with each other is a priceless gift at this time in our lives – a time to make memories and share experiences that last a lifetime.
Sarah, FPS Patient, Age 31 (deceased 8/2011)
P.S. We look forward to seeing you all at the Demo Days tomorrow, September 14th.
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