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THE STORY OF “STEVE”
Many of the people who contact Working Families’ Friend for assistance don’t
need financial assistance, they need guidance, advocacy, information or just
someone to talk to. Many people who contact Working Families’ Friend don’t
know WHAT they need. That was the case when a gentleman we’ll call “Steve”
contacted the agency.
Steve and his wife both worked, they had a lovely home and a
beautiful daughter. All in all, life had been very good to
them. Then came the day that their little daughter was
diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Even though we have one
of the best children’s hospitals right here in Kansas City, the
doctors assured Steve that his daughter would have the best
chance of beating the cancer at St. Jude’s Children’s Research
Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
In the blur of letting the news sink in, making arrangements to
take off work and figuring out how to get the family to
Tennessee, one of Steve’s supervisors suggested he contact
Working Families’ Friend to “see what they can do.” Steve did
call Working Families’ Friend and expressed that he didn’t
really know what services could be provided, or how he could be
helped, but his boss had told him to call. The staff at Working
Families’ Friend asked him questions about his situation and his
plans. His plan was basically to do whatever he needed to do,
risk whatever he needed to risk and spend whatever he needed to
spend to get his daughter the help she needed. He expressed
that he would spare no expense to save his daughter but that he
was feeling the pressure of the unknown. What would this all
ultimately cost the family and how would he pay for it?
Understandably, it was a very frantic and confused time.
The Working Families’ Staff contacted St. Jude’s, arranged free
housing and transportation for the entire family for as long as
their daughter needed to stay. They also were able to get
detailed information about what the family should anticipate
when they got there, which doctors they would be working with
and what resources St. Jude’s had to offer to make their stay
the best it could be. So many questions that the family had not
even thought to ask had now been answered. And, the best part,
there would be NO charge, the family would incur NO expenses.
Because both parents would have to take un-paid leave from work,
Working Families’ Friend also gave them $500 to help with
transportation to and from Memphis, knowing that the
transportation while there would be provided.
This was a family who didn’t need much but what they needed more
than anything was a cool, calm, unemotional head to get
involved, gather information and send them down the road to
recovery with their daughter. Their little girl received the
treatment she needed at St. Jude’s while her parents stayed in a
lovely living environment right there on the hospital property
so they were never far from their daughter’s side. Her
treatment was successful and the whole, happy family is back
home in Kansas City.
“I just had no idea that there was an agency around that would
just lend me a hand when I needed it. I would never have called
if my boss wouldn’t have told me to because I just assumed that
people like us wouldn’t qualify for help anywhere. I’m so glad
that I did because the information they got for us made my wife
and me feel much less scared of the unknown. I will forever be
grateful for what they did for us.”
Steve
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