Sports, video games, and friends. Like most 10-year-olds, that was Luka’s every day - and, not to forget, the odd fight with his older brothers. An athletic family with three boys, things were rarely quiet. “Between sports, friends, and school, life has always been busy to say the least,” says Michelle, Luka’s mom.
In January 2016, Luka was sick with what doctors believed was a bad flu. After a trip to the ER in February for unusually severe symptoms, Luka and his family were faced with a nightmare - a Leukemia diagnosis. Almost as soon as Michelle, Luka and his family started to confront this horribly dark situation, Childcan entered the family’s story too.
“When you hear the diagnosis, your world is put on hold; the ground falls out from under you. Not only that, but it feels like nobody knows what you’re going through. You can’t think, you don’t know what’s next,” described Michelle, “then Childcan walks into your room and helps in ways you didn’t know you needed.”
In so many ways, Childcan wraps around families like Luka’s. “It’s not just the parking pass or the food vouchers. Those are helpful and they really do reduce stress, but it’s having someone who’s been there tell me that, ‘I’m gonna be okay. It’s going to be okay’ that really mattered,” Michelle explains. By alleviating external worries through responsive and direct financial assistance, compassionate emotional support and so much more, Childcan helps families like Michelle’s to focus on their child’s care.
After eight months in this new world full of doctors, treatments including a bone marrow transplant, and missing out on adventures with friends, Luka went into remission. “We celebrated, but it didn’t last forever,” Michelle explains. In early 2019, doctors found the cancer had returned, and Luka and his family were, once again, facing childhood cancer. But like their first experience, the family was far from alone - Childcan was right beside them.
That is what makes Childcan so special. In that journey of childhood cancer, when it feels like you, as a parent, have lost control, Childcan helps you find it. With something as simple as an “it’s going to be okay,” from someone who has been there, you find hope.
In treatment for the rest of the year, including a second bone marrow transplant, with Childcan at his side, Luka overcame cancer for the second time in December 2019.
Now, preparing to return to a ‘new normal’, Luka, Michelle, and their entire family continue to be grateful for everything Childcan has made possible for them. “Childcan supported us fully when we were going through our experience. They helped bring down our stress in so many ways that made a real difference for us,” says Michelle. “And for that, we couldn’t be more grateful.”