Parent volunteers help other parents through a pediatric cancer diagnosis : NPR
When a child is diagnosed with cancer, parents can feel overwhelmed. A new program connects them with volunteers who have cared for child cancer survivors.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Devon Still is a former NFL defensive tackle who played for the Cincinnati Bengals. He is used to facing the most determined opponents and winning. But in 2014, Still found himself faced with a situation he never imagined. Her daughter Leah, aged 4, was diagnosed with cancer. His first reaction was shock.
DEVON STILL: Like, that can’t be my daughter. This can’t be my life. I was just playing in the NFL. Everything was great.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
He says friends and family offered support, words of encouragement, but sometimes they missed the mark.
STILL: And they would say everything happens for a reason. And to me, even though I know there were good intentions behind it, it felt dismissive of how I really felt.
KELLY: But he found solidarity in waiting rooms with other parents who were struggling with similar emotions, and that’s where today’s episode of Here to Help, our series focused on community and service, continues.
STILL: We were sitting on the cancer floor in a hospital with so many other families who were going through the same things.
KELLY: So earlier this year, when Devon Still heard about a new program offering support for parents like him, he used his platform to raise awareness about it. This is the Hopeful Hearts Peer Mentoring Program, run by the nonprofit Cancer Hope Network. It connects parents facing a child’s cancer diagnosis and treatment with volunteer mentors who have experienced the same thing.
LEE GRIER: Being able to talk to someone who has been there and is on the other end, I think, is just a lifeline for some families, for some parents.
SUMMERS: This is Lee Grier from Greenfield Township, Pennsylvania. She has a 13-year-old daughter whose cancer is in remission. As a volunteer, she provides a listening ear to other parents in the program.
GRIER: Having the ability to guide someone and not knowing maybe everything they’re feeling, but knowing a lot of where they’re at, that’s a gift we’ve been given.
KELLY: Chrissy Thomas is another volunteer mentor from Madison, Virginia, who remembers what it was like when her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in 2021.
CHRISSY THOMAS: I couldn’t bring myself to say the word cancer. I think it was just the symbol of the word. It was scary. And I didn’t know what was going to happen. To reach that remission, to get him to the end of treatment and to ring that bell, it was huge. When I came across Hopeful Hearts on Facebook, I thought, this is what I can do to give back. This is where I can start.
KELLY: Thomas remembers the first time she called a parent whose child had just started treatment.
THOMAS: We actually talked for probably about an hour. You know, I gave the floor to the parent. Having that network of people who know exactly what you’re feeling and how you’re feeling it is really important.
SUMMERS: As for Devon Still, her daughter is now 15 and cancer free. And he appreciates that volunteers can offer support for all possible outcomes in the fight against cancer, even the worst.
STILL: It’s a long journey. There’s the diagnosis, there’s the in-between, and hopefully there will be remission. But for many families, it is about accepting the death of their child. And to fully know and understand each step of this journey, it is really important to support families.
KELLY: Lee Grier puts it this way.
GRIER: We can’t change the course of what’s going to happen, but we can be there to support families along their journey.
KELLY: You can find more stories about volunteering in America at npr.org/heretohelp.
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