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Donor MVPs
How to Help |
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If you feel like you want to help, the family can certainly take the relief. It takes a team to get a family and patient through cancer. Because the parents are so overwhelmed, they may not have the ability to reach out and ask for what they want. They just know that they need help. What can you do to help? Reach out to your community. Go to a sibling/friend, parish or someone close to the parent to let them know you want to help out. You can appoint that person to be the "go to communication person" for the family. If you don't have anyone's information just taking the initiative to do something helpful. The smallest things can be the most helpful. Here are things that you can do to help them and things that we have done. 1.Instead of being inundated with phone calls, just leave one message. Contact the "go to communication person" and ask them to relay a message. Sending cards to the family's home is a nice way to show that you are thinking of them and care. Emails with helpful thoughts are great too. My sister appreciates all of that. Facebook is a popular way to send messages. 2.If you decide to visit the hospital, make your visits short. Ask the nurse if they want a visitor. If not leave a paper message with the nurse's station. Sometimes the patient and/or parent are tired or do not feel well and does not know how to say, "Please Leave!" Keep your visits to 15 minutes or less unless they specifically tell you they do not want you to leave. It's refreshing to see new faces a few times a day during this time. 3.Organize a group of people to bring dinners to the house every night as the patient goes through hospital treatments. The group could be the child's school, parent co-workers, child's sport teams or even your friends. The family does not have the time to shop or make food, one less thing to worry about. Give the family a giant cooler, or ask them if they have one to keep outside so you can drop off food. That is a great way to get the school community involved in helping the family through this. 4.Arranging events that the child is interested in is helpful because it gives them something fun to look forward to when they are out of chemo. For example, a friend of ours had some Giants tickets and invited Sam, Suzy and Derek to go. 5.I am so lucky to have such a great group of caring friends. Some just dropped things off on their porch such as desserts and fun magazines that Sam likes. – Jeanne Butler Sam's Relief Pal |
Family grants are specifically designed to aid families who need financial assistance in caring for their children with sarcoma cancer. Please click here for more information and the Family Grant Application form.
