Thank you, John Shapiro’s Superheroes. You have made such a difference in our lives. My daughter, Hailey, was diagnosed with her brain tumor many years ago. She has undergone many things to stop the tumor from growing – surgeries, radiation, and many, different chemotherapies. Her treatment has left her with many chronic health issues. We spend a lot of time traveling back and forth to numerous doctors’ appointments managing her many health issues. Appointments, therapy and school leave Hailey with little time to do fun things. Health insurance helps us cover some, but not all, of the medical costs. Many things that could help are not covered by insurance.

Hailey is doing horseback riding therapy which is exercise needed to prevent her muscle weakness and tone issues, but she sees it as more fun than anything else. We are also looking to get Hailey a service dog to help her become even more independent. Your donation is helping us cover some of these costs.

Thank you so much!

– Lisa Giguere

Dear Nancy,

We wanted to take this time to express our tremendous thanks to you in writing for the support of several of our PACT patients and families. Families receiving palliative care services usually have tremendous needs. Caregivers often need to be at their child’s beside 24/7. Your generous donations have allowed families to be with their children by helping them to pay their utility bills, put gas in their cars and put food on their tables.

We wish we could accurately describe the moment we let families know each donation would be coming. There were tears, smiles and mostly, visible relief from families in great need. Your contributions were so great, that the parents had a hard time believing it could be true. It brought energy to tired families and also to the staff that are providing care to them on a daily basis. We are reminded that there are truly good people that remain in this world.

We are tremendously thankful for your generous donations. We continue to be honored to support families in memory of your son, John. The breadth and meaning it has for families receiving pediatric palliative care services cannot be typed into words.

Sincerely,

Dana Dombrowski, MSW, LSW
Social Worker
Pediatric Advanced Care Team
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

The day I received your gift, I had had a terrible “sibling” day. My daughter’s teacher had called to let me know that Lucia had gotten upset in class and had started crying because they had to read a story about a girl who went to the doctor’s office with a severe headache. She ended up needing an MRI and then last with her mom questioning what her future would hold. Lucia has lived through this and was naturally upset.

That day I started thinking about all the ways Tommy’s siblings had been affected, all the things I had planned to do for them but never got to it, the extra curricular things I wanted to give them but due to lack of time and money, I never did. Then I thought of all the ways life was unfair for them, all the prizes Tommy received, I somehow stopped blaming myself and told myself that we did the best we could with what we had and that was all we could do.

Then your gift arrived. I swear I felt John with me and just thanked him and thanked all who loved him and all who raised this money for someone else, someone they may not know. I promised him we would do things for Tommy’s siblings, to bring them a smile and some joy.

When your child is diagnosed with a brain tumor one of the many feelings is lack of control for what is happening. Our son Andrew was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 3 and as a result of the growing tumor in his brain, surgery, and many years of chemotherapy came many deficits including academic. We knew early on that Andrew needed a very specific academic environment but with that came the tremendous financial burden of placing him in a private school that could meet those needs.

While the clinical aspect of Andrew’s diagnosis limits what we can control, we know that we can control where he goes to school. We can provide him a place where he is happy and thriving. John Shapiro’s Superheroes has given us the financial support to lessen the burden of the tuition that comes with Andrew’s school and having that control we could not be more grateful.