Nancy’s Club will always be my favorite project of the many I initiated for Nancy’s List.
I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area when I developed Nancy’s Club with the support of many persons and businesses in our community. Together, we made a magical difference in the lives of wonderful children and teens who were living with cancer … be it their own diagnosis or that of someone they loved.
The background of Nancy’s Club …
I am a clinical psychologist specializing in family systems. I talk with many youngsters and their families. I witness the powerful trauma that cancer poses for family members who are all living with the disease.
Within one week, I had two new children in my therapy practice. They spoke powerful truth.
Susie, a 12-year-old girl, who had been adopted from Mexico by her California parents, lost her father to cancer. She was terribly worried that her mother was now battling breast cancer for the second time. She asked me,
If my mom dies,
will I be an orphan again
and get sent back to Mexico?
Johnny, also 12-years-old, told me,
My mom is sick again with cancer for the 3rd time
and my dad is drinking like a fish.
I am afraid they are both going to die.
Help me find a way to make him stop drinking.
He won’t listen to me.
The Club offered these youngsters a sense of belonging to a community with others who shared their challenges. They listened generously to one another, offered support, found hope, strength, healing, fascination, empowerment (“WOW! I can DO this!”), friendship, AND they always laughed and had fun.
And the extraordinary San Francisco Bay Area community embraced our project and gave generously so that we could play and laugh. We went to the San Francisco Giants, the Oakland As, and 49ers games. The kids were introduced to key players. Buster Posey was their favorite. We went to many live performances in the local theaters. We enjoyed the Exploratorium, the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Children’s Theater, and the opera and ballet. We had picnics on the beach and some kids went kayaking. We visited the Audubon Nature Preserve.
Meet some of the Shining Stars of Nancy’s Club
who loved to sail on the San Francisco Bay.
Little Gal, a 9-year-old child with leukemia, said to me,
When I am sailing with my brother and my mom,
I forget I even have cancer.
One father watched his young daughter
who suffered from sarcoma in her jaw.
She was behind the wheel of the boat and smiling.
My daughter has never smiled in months.
I thought it was the cancer.
Now I know it was because she was so unhappy.
Today, she is happy.
Thank you.
At one of our big beach picnics for the children,
one adorable boy was munching down hamburgers
as quickly as he could.
His dad said to me,
I am always so worried
because my boy has stopped eating at home.
He is eating now.
And he is happy.
Thank you.
Now I know he will live.
Although the children were ready to get back on the sailboat,
we decided we would stay
as long as our happy friend was happily eating away.
Grace, age 15, shared the happiest part of her day.
The happiest part of my day
is watching Ivy
(age 6 and a tough leukemia survivor)
have a happy day.
She doesn’t have many happy days.
And Ivy’s mother Suzanne shared this …
When we are with Nancy’s Club,
gratitude takes a front seat.
Human connection is the only thing
that absolutely matters.
I love Nancy’s Club.
The Club has saved Ivy’s spirit
and probably her life.
We always celebrated the kids’ courage and resilience and loving friendship. I was beyond delighted that I could offer them the possibility of being a kid without the label of being a “cancer kid.”
They loved to laugh.
It was wonderful.
Meet Harry,
one of the many children of courage …
a Shining Star.
Harry was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) at 6 months of age.
Katie, his mom, said,
Knowing your child has cancer is bad enough.
Then finding out it is a rare type,
then an aggressive type.
Then learning it has spread into his cerebrospinal fluid,
he has a 50/50 chance of survival,
and the treatment you are about to put him through
is very toxic.
It was devastating news.
After five weeks in the hospital, Harry finished his first round of chemotherapy. Two days later, the family learned that, although the cancer in Harry’s blood was in remission, cancer cells remained in his spinal fluid. He was classified as a relapse. His chances of survival decreased to 20 percent. The only way he might make it was a bone marrow transplant.
When Harry was nearly 8 months old, he underwent that procedure. His donor was an unrelated 25-year-old German miller who chopped wood and raised sheep and goats for a living. A true hero indeed.
Harry spent most of his young life in the hospital. He missed the Christmas trees and the birthday parties in his early childhood, living with a feeding tube for so many years. He was denied so many childhood pleasures of running after a ball, climbing a tree, jumping on the trampoline … always needing to be careful.
When Harry was 3, he and his family came to Nancy’s Club for a sailing outing. We thought he was too young to sail. The plan was that he would stay on the beach with his mom Katie, while his 6-year-old brother Jack and his dad Julian would sail with us. Harry took one look at the boat, heard the plan, and loudly expressed his upset that he was to be excluded from the sail. “NO way!”
I listened to Harry. His fierce tenacity, his bravery, his determination were so powerful. I asked the crew to rig up a life jacket for this little strong, brave superman and off Harry sailed.
When Dianne, our volunteer captain, positioned him behind the wheel, Harry felt his courage. He looked straight into my eyes and said,
Today is the happiest day of my life.
Katie, Harry’s mom, said to me,
What an uplifting wonderful experience
for our family
after 3 years of anguish.
This is the reason for Nancy’s Club.
This is why we are needed and must continue our work.
For children like Harry.
This has only been possible because of the talents and commitments of hundreds of volunteers and the many generous financial donations from people across the country.
I would love to see this project duplicated all over our country … and beyond.
With immense gratitude to the many many amazing people who made this happen for the many many children we love …
Nancy
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