Battling cancer is a long and exhaustive process for anyone.  For children, the experience is also confusing and lonely.  Classes are replaced with visits to the hospital, friends are replaced by nurses, laughs are replaced with tears and innocence is replaced by maturity.  Jasmine's fight lasted three years, but no amount of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery was able rid her body of tumors that continued to grow and spread. And yet, she normally maintained a high spirit.  We are in debted to her community of family, teachers, friends, doctors and nurses who tried to bring a level of normalcy to a chaotic process.

Pediatric cancers are hard to research due to their lack of funding and rarity. Gene sequencing and personalized mRNA cancer vaccines may soon conquer the most common cancers.  But until all pediatric cancers are cured, we must help our children experience as much of their precious childhood as they can.

We often say that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center treats the person, not just the disease. The Child Life Services program provides rays of happiness and distraction during the cancer treatments. Monday night Bingo, Friday candy cart, birthday gifts and posters, hand-made pizzas, decorative pancakes, puzzles, games, movies, books, and art projects brought happiness to Jasmine's hospital visits.  In the face of Covid-19 restrictions, the Child Live Services program continued to spread joy to children with Zoom Bingo and virtual arts and crafts.

Your support to this fund will help give back the 'childhood' that has often been stolen from so many children. Please join us in honoring Jasmine by donating to this inspiring program.

Antai & Nick