Emily and Matt: One Family, Two Cancer Fighters
By Laura Amador
The first time I heard about The Hugs for Brady Foundation was at the Max Fitness Center in East Brunswick. They have a coin collection bin near the front. Max Fitness, also, posted on their Facebook page requesting donations for Hugs for Brady. I never pass up an opportunity to donate to an organization doing something for kids with cancer, as I also have a kid with cancer. As a matter of fact I have two kids with cancer.
Emily was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in March of 2010 at the age of 18. This, I recently found out,
was the same time period that Brady was battling his cancer. Emily, thankfully, won her battle.
Three and a half years later I was feeling pretty confident that Emily’s cancer was not coming back only to find out that my son has the same cancer. He was diagnosed on July 10, his thirteenth birthday.
Currently, Matt is going through his treatments and often spends three or four consecutive nights at the Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital. Since it is only three years ago that we did the same with Emily, we have not forgotten anything about our hospital stays. We did, however, notice some new things. There are now two TV’s in the patient rooms. One for the child, so they can watch whatever they want and one for the parent by the window bed. My husband and I are able to watch news or our favorite shows. Hugs for Brady is responsible for this very helpful addition. There are also adorable wagons designed to look like animals in all the hallways. We often see the young kids being pulled around the floor by their parents. The kids look adorable in their buggies. Hugs for Brady Foundation has purchased these for the hospital as well.
We are just getting to know this wonderful organization. Sherrie has reached out to our family several times and we can feel the warmth and knowledge from a mom who has gone through a horrific time dealing with losing a child to cancer.
We are happy that this organization is helping children battling cancer and most importantly in assisting in research to, ultimately, find a cure. We want an answer. We want to know how to prevent this.