Kids Beating Cancer, Inc.

Sometimes the simplest of problems becomes overwhelming during hospitalization. Buying food and eating with your child, who may be too critical to leave alone, becomes one of these burdens. Kids Beating Cancer provides Food Vouchers for families so they can order food from their child’s hospital room and eat with their child during hospital stays.  In addition, Kids Beating Cancer keeps the Transplant Center Family Kitchen stocked with meals, snacks, and drinks. Kids Beating Cancer reduces this burden on the family by providing meals, in their child’s hospital room, so parents don’t have to worry if they have cash in order to eat. The “Food for Families” program is not simply providing meals as an end in itself. Hospital studies have shown that the entire family complex adds to survival and successful treatment when daily stresses are controlled. Removing the need to worry about where every meal is coming from provides stability and freedom from financial stress for these families going through this tremendously stressful treatment, and actually contributes to the successful outcome for the child. The transplant team has express ed this is vital to keeping the parents healthy and strong so they can have the endurance to be able to cope with the life of living in their child’s hospital room for many weeks, even months during the transplant process. The measurement of the need for this program, is reflected through in the number of Meal Vouchers distributed since the program began in 20015. Through July 2019 15,612  meals were provided totaling $156,120. In addition, we keep the Family Kitchen stocked weekly with groceries, inventorying items consumed, preferred and requested, adjusting purchasing to meet the needs of the families.

At the Kids Beating Cancer Pediatric Transplant Center, we want children and families to feel at home. When a child needs a stem cell transplant the treatment will require them to be away from the familiarity and comforts of home for many weeks, even months. “My Room” program provides a ‘safe, fun, place’ during a child’s transplant. The transplant process is lengthy, coupled with an extended stay away from the child’s own space, causes children to become very homesick. We know that a hospital can be a scary place for a young child. A customized, themed hospital room is done according to each child’s preference. From sheets and bedding to toys and games, the hospital room will be filled with the bright colors of; Disney Princesses to Spiderman, Ninja Turtles to Star Wars or one of many other themes. The children can then focus on the fun of their theme, softening the look of a very high tech, state of the art Kids Beating Cancer Pediatric Transplant Center hospital room. Parents and the transplant team have expressed to KBC how important it is for the child’s well-being by making the hospital room personalized, fun, and less institutionalize. The parents and the transplant team shared it helped the children feel less scared, in better spirits, and less depressed during the most difficult of all hospital stays since diagnosis. We monitor success through the spirts lifted in the children expressed to KBC through the parents, Physicians, Nurses, and social workers. The more home-like we transform the hospital rooms over shadowing the "institutional scary hospital look" softens them to a magical, comforting security, the children themselves selected. The measurement in the need is reflect through the post discharge surveys of the child’s experience during their time in the KBC Transplant Center.

Karing 4 Kids provides children once out of the hospital, and their families, with individualized support services to survive the day-to-day, critical, and complex needs that occur while their child is in treatment. KBC provides; family parties, tickets to events and attractions, and holiday celebrations for children and their families. Bringing families together during the treatment process is a positive experience. Parents express it helps them to better cope, and gives them a base of support. Families have shared with KBC their appreciation for this program, emphasizing the impact of bringing families together in a safe environment, the joy in seeing their children happy with friends that understand their situations, brings joy and comfort in between the many painful treatments and hospitalizations.

Kids Beating Cancer is a trusted resource for the community and beyond on bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapy. Through outreach and education, Kids Beating Cancer is a leader in raising awareness of the need for pediatric transplantation via media exhibition, public events, and forums. The diseases that Kids Beating Cancer deals with are going to be cured over the coming decades not by present methods, but by new knowledge that is going to be acquired and is at the forefront of scientific inquiry today. Planned for February 23, 2020: “Science is the Cure Research Symposium,” a medical research conference in Orlando. This symposium will share the science behind bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapy. Research Scientist will submit research proposals for pediatric cancer research studies in advance, 20 recipients will be selected to present at the symposium, they will be judged by a scientific panel, and one scientist will receive a $100,000 at the conclusion of the symposium

The Kids Beating Cancer Cellular Therapy Lab will break ground in 2020 at AdventHealth Orlando. This new Research Center will provide the only pediatric cancer research in Central Florida, housing the soon to be hired Kids Beating Cancer Endowed Pediatric Research Chair. This center will provide critical procedures necessary for pediatric bone-marrow and stem cell transplants, reducing the wait time for patients and reducing health care costs. The ability to have a state-of-the-art lab with the best medical equipment will also have a tremendous effect on the treatments that can be offered in house versus having to be sent out to a third-party laboratory. The hours gained can seem like a lifetime for a child and their family.

Kids Beating Cancer Children’s Fund provides a series of unique and critically needed services directed at removing some of the overwhelming burdens placed on families going through the prolonged and difficult treatment process of a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.

Kids Beating Cancer Children’s Fund focus for these special children and their families, is what every parent wants: their child to be healthy, to beat cancer, and for the family to survive the long journey to a cure.

The Children’s Fund vision that inspired years of tenacious, unwavering effort was culminated in the opening of the KIDS BEATING CANCER PEDIATRIC TRANSPLANT CENTER, at AdventHealth for Children in Orlando in 2012, an 8-bed state-of-the-art facility.

Through Kids Beating Cancer Children’s Fund, children are able to access bone marrow and stem cell transplants by identifying a compatible donor, costs never covered by Medicaid and some insurances through the FUND THE MATCH program. Children arrive in the KIDS BEATING CANCER PEDIATRIC TRANSPLANT CENTER to a fully decorated, fun themed hospital room selected by the child, reducing fear and stress through the MY ROOM” program. The “FOOD FOR FAMILIES” programs keeps the Kids Beating Cancer Pediatric Transplant Center Kitchen stocked with meals, drinks, and snacks, as well as food vouchers are available for meals to be delivered to help the families remain strong and less overwhelmed with the fear of not being able to afford the most basic necessity during transplant, food.

The heart of the Kids Beating Cancer Children’s Fund is
SAVING CHILDREN’S LIVES.