Dear ones, we are so pleased to announce that Chase has picked Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation as his fundraising recipients this year.
Tonight, I asked Chase a little bit more about why he chose these organizations and his words were so precious that I need to quote them as I tell you a little bit more.
“We give to Lurie so that kids like me don’t give up hope. Kids can survive and get their medicines.”
When we were first told that Chase had a large mass on his brain, we were standing in a local hospital. Within hours, a Lurie ambulance transport came for us, and within two days, Chase was in the operating room having life-saving brain surgery. He would go on to spend much of the next two years living on the 17th and 18th floors (the oncology areas) of the hospital in downtown Chicago.
All of this happened when he was two years old, so why is this still such an intense and present interest to us? Why would Chase choose to fund Lurie even now? Because, dear ones. Chase’s brain cancer is a life-long diagnosis. Even now…he spent the first six months of this year in the hospital three days a week receiving cardiac rehab therapy to help stabilize some kind of dysautonomia – a chronic condition linked to his initial diagnosis. And so many of you have done the years and adventures with us… you regularly read how often he bounces back into the hospital, how many tests are required and how often the doctors don’t have answers…not because they aren’t brilliant, but because Chase is one of the first surviving generations of his disease and he and his peers sit on the event horizon, hoping for better days.
Young children simply don’t walk away from a brain tumor diagnosis.
And this is why half of what is given will go directly to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Program at Lurie Children’s.
“The Rizzo Foundation walks with us one step at a time.”
When I asked Chase how he would define the foundation and he told me these words, I just stared at him. They’re so perfect! The Rizzo family has personally walked a childhood cancer journey and have made it the goal of their foundation to walk lock-step with the families suffering the worst season of their lives and to mitigate stress in any way they can.
For some, that might look like meals sent to the hospital, for others, a wish or a need granted (like Chase’s iPad), and still others, financial assistance (like helping with medical bills, a mortgage payment, or holiday gifts). They also help fund oncology family services like child life specialists to help young patients when they feel afraid or overwhelmed. Dear ones, I didn’t get this list off their website… Bob and I have personally felt these assistances in our family over the years as Chase has struggled again and again. I can honestly say that I don’t know where we’d be without their consistent encouragement.
And this is why half of what is given will go to the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation.
We dearly want to help create better days for those around us and those yet to find themselves in this beautiful and brutal existence. We can’t turn back the clock for Chase. But we might very well be able to help with what comes next …
So looking forward to Friday! [the link will go live on Friday morning!]
Moment by moment.
[I love this picture … thank you, Margaret]