Cancer Free Kids:  Courage Passport Program

A cancer diagnosis can be a devastating blow, especially when it involves a child, but a new program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital helps families through the journey and gives them courage along the way.

It comes from the heart of a stuffed lion and a passport into an unexpected journey.

Courage the Lion, is soft, fluffy, and huggable, but he’s more than just another stuffed animal.

He’s given to pediatric cancer patients at the time of diagnosis and now he comes with the Courage Passport, given out for the first time just weeks ago.

The passport was created by Ellen Flannery, president of CancerFree Kids, and Liz Annett, a preschool teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School and CancerFree Kids volunteer.

Annett knows how important courage is in the face of cancer. She too is a survivor.

“I have a courage bracelet that I wear to this day. There are just days when you know you need a little help with what you’re doing, so a little courage on the way helps a lot,” Annett says.

The Courage Passport gives parents and their kids a place to keep track of records, medicines, treatments and even their thoughts. There’s a star chart in the back for each visit to the doctor, so the kids know how much courage they’ve had along the way.

Polly Partin-Welch has given out more than a dozen passports already.

“They’re all very excited to get them,” she says.

Partin-Welch is the clinical director of the Hematology/Oncology Division at Children’s.

“The passport is one of those ways that helps the families have some control over everything else that’s going on,” she says.

For the families who have seen the inside of the Hematology/Oncology unit, they know, it’s the courage that gets them through.

CancerFree Kids is a local organization that raises money and awareness for pediatric cancer research.

Patients who did not receive the passport in the hospital can have one sent for free. Go to www.cancerfreekids.com

Do you know someone you needs a little extra courage? Send them Courage the Lion found on the same site.

 

*Lizzy appeared on Channel 5  news program on 12/6-07 @ 5:45 am  This article was obtained from the WLWT website and was based on her interview.