Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth Helps the Whole Family

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Disclaimer :: This post was was sponsored and written by the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth to bring awareness to Fort Worth Moms readers.

More than 15,700 families a year receive a cancer diagnosis for their child. At the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth (RMHFW) cancer accounts for about 25 percent of patients’ diagnoses. We support them in the best way possible because we believe that a family with a sick child needs help for the whole family, not just the sick child. 

Perhaps the most poignant way to understand what these families endure is through the words of a former RMHFW family. Tiffany was a U.S. Air Force senior airman stationed in Kuwait when her daughter Mari was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In 2013, she wrote the following to raise awareness of childhood cancer this year:

The ugly truth and reality of childhood cancer.

Watching your child endure the worst pain and suffering of her life as you sit helplessly beside her and try to comfort her is devastating and hell on earth.

When your child gets diagnosed with cancer, colors lose their brightness, and the world seems so gray. The ground is unsteady, and food tastes like ash. Your stomach flutters in a free fall that doesn’t stop. Your fists ball up, but there’s nothing to fight. A screaming, heaving, sinking panic rises in your chest and there’s nothing you can do but be with him through the pain and suffering.

First, it takes their childhood, then it takes their lives. Join the fight, LET’S FIND A CURE!!!!!

Ronald McDonald House supports families.

Children die of childhood cancer more than any other disease. Still, all types of childhood cancers combined receive only four percent of the federal cancer research funding. The Ronald McDonald House serves sick children and their families by supporting charities that are devoted to childhood cancer research.

Are you interested in finding a charity to support? Visit www.charitynavigator.org or www.guidestar.org. These organizations provide a third-party analysis of charities using a uniform standard of measurement. 

The RMHFW community is unique. Whether a staff member or fellow family, each bears witness to and shares in the pain and joy cancer families live through. But they know that even after they go home, they still have a home in Fort Worth, a “home-away-from-home.” Let’s join together in solidarity with these families in not only in September during Childhood Cancer Awareness month, but year round. As Tiffany said above, “Let’s find a cure!”

In 2018, RMHFW served 869 family visits, staying 11,954 nights for an average length of stay of 14 days. Cancer is the second leading diagnosis for families staying at the house. Premature birth is the first.

For a sick child, sometimes the best medicine of all is having family nearby for more hugs, kisses and I love yous. RMHFW’s 57-room building provides safe spaces for families to be together yet only steps away from the hospitals. As part of the 57-rooms, it retains six transplant suites, which are ideal for transplant patients who have been released from the hospital but are not quite ready to be home.

Additionally, the Ronald McDonald Family Room and newly-implemented day program allow families who are not staying at the House to receive the comfort and care of our mission, which offers a supportive, home-like community that eases burdens for seriously ill children and their families. 

The Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth is a refuge for hundreds of families each year, and we are committed to serving thousands more in the years to come. Our mission is fulfilled by staff and a multitude of volunteers. If you would like to learn more about how you can be involved with our mission, please visit www.rmhfw.org

Ronal McDonald House chief marketing director Beth LambBeth Lamb, chief marketing officer for the Ronald McDonald House, has been in education and non-profit communications for almost 25 years. Beth is actively involved with the Fort Worth Chapter of Public Relations Society of America and currently serves as president. She is a graduate of Texas Wesleyan University and is married with two grown children. https://www.acco.org/diagnosis/

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