United Way holds a very special place in my heart because it was there for me when I needed it most.  About twenty years ago, my daughter Heather was diagnosed with Stage IV Wilms Tumor (kidney cancer).   She was three years old at the time and I was terrified for her.  Aside from my own feeling of terror, I needed to find a way to explain what was happening to my daughter without terrifying her as well.  I had no clue how to tell my daughter about her illness in terms a child would understand. 

Fortunately, someone directed me to United Way and the American Cancer Society. Thanks to the wonderful library at the American Cancer Society, I found the perfect explanation to get my daughter through the horrific effects of chemotherapy and other aspects of the disease.  I told my daughter that she was attacked by bad guys (cancer cells) when no one was looking.  Of course she asked me why I didn’t stop them and I explained that they were very sneaky, but we had our own army of good guys (chemotherapy) and if she got sick after chemotherapy, it was because the good guys were fighting with the bad guys and the good guys were winning.

The explanation sounds very simple, but I never would have been able to come up with it without the help of the American Cancer Society library.  The best part was that my daughter wrote a story in the hospital classroom stating that she liked chemotherapy and she didn’t care if it made her sick because she knew that the good guys were beating up the bad guys and she was going to get better.  Heather is 24 years old now and she graduated from college with honors.  She also volunteers as a counselor for Camp Okizu every summer.  Camp Okizu is another United Way organization and it gives children a chance to forget their cancers for a week and just be kids having fun.

God Bless Our Promise (formerly CSECC) and the wonderful organizations it supports.