Delivering Some Comfort And Smiles

I finally got to do something yesterday that I have been thinking about doing for years.

Quick backstory... If you don't know, I lost my Mom to cancer in 2014. She was my biggest fan, cheerleader, and the best Mom anyone could ask for. My Mom spent the better part of 3 years fighting cancer. Having watched her work like crazy to take care of my brother and I as a single Mom, I knew she was tough. But fighting cancer is a beast. I don't know that I could do it. My Mom never got angry... she never let it get her down... and she kept a positivity about her that was pretty amazing. I spent a lot of time taking my Mom to and from her treatments and appointments. I remember her chemo treatments being very long days. Days that take a lot out of you, mentally and physically. If you've never dealt with chemo treatments, it varies by patient, but generally they are long, 4-6 hour appointments. Basically you sit in a chair, hooked up to a machine, and wait. On my Mom's first treatment, we didn't know what to expect so we were pretty unprepared. As her treatments went on, we put together her tote bag of essentials to get through the day making it as easy as possible. Little stuff... blankets and warm socks because it's always so cold in there... books, puzzles, games, pretty much anything to pass the time... and I gave her an iPad so she could play online or watch movies. Fast forward... when I lost my Mom, one of the things I wanted to do was to put together a few of those bags, and give them to new patients that might be going through the same thing my Mom went through. I talked about it a lot... I just never got it off the ground.

Fast forward again... Earlier this year I was doing an appearance for XL at a Cricket Wireless store in Ocoee. I met the owners, David and Rebecca. We were talking about different charity organizations that they work with and Baby DJ, and I brought up the idea that I had about putting these bags together. They loved the idea and said they would love to help. I left that day thinking that we would probably get together and start the process eventually... Well, within a day or two, Rebecca was running 100 miles per hour getting bags together! She reached out to vendors that they work with and had Cricket employees jump in and help... and in no time, they pulled together 50 bags with all the essentials that we had talked about! It was really amazing. With the bags done, I started working on getting tablets for as many patients that I could so they would have something to keep them entertained during those long days. I bought the first 5 myself, and I was going to buy 5 more every time I got paid. I posted about it on my IG, and a few people asked if they could send me money to help buy the tablets. Someone suggested I set up a GoFundMe page. I did, and pretty quickly, I was able to buy 15 more tablets. In fact, Amazon is making me hold off on buying more because they thought I was trying to resell them! So we had the 50 bags... and 20 tablets... and we were ready to get them out to people!

At iHeart Media, we do a lot of work with AdventHealth. I reached out to the Account Executive that works with Advent, Susan... and she put me in contact with Emily from AdventHealth Foundation CFL... and we got the ball rolling. Yesterday, David, Rebecca, and I met Emily at AdventHealth Celebration. There we met Cyndi, who showed us around and introduced us to patients, and allowed us to give the comfort bags we put together to them. The facility is truly amazing, and the staff there is so great. It was a good thing that I had a mask on, because I was fighting back tears the entire time. It flashed me back to 2012 when my Mom was sitting in those chairs. I have to say that every patient we met had that same vibe about them that my Mom had... the positivity even while going through something so life altering. I loved being able to give them just a little something to smile about, and maybe make those long days a little bit easier to manage.

I appreciate everyone that helped make this finally happen. David and Rebecca, and their crew at Cricket Wireless... Susan from my office and Emily from AdventHealth... Cyndi and all the nurses and doctors at AdventHealth Celebration... Everyone that donated even $5 to help me speed up the tablet buying process.. and the wonder patients we met yesterday, for allowing us to step into their lives for a few minutes. I hope we made your days a little brighter and helped you keep up the fight.

Wanted to share a few photos with you guys...