Patients at Rady Children’s Hospital receive special gifts
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — Several children battling cancer are being given a gift in hopes of keeping their spirits up.
A local business and organization are teaming up to make it happen.
Ava Foster said she loves dressing up as Wonder Woman and other superheros.
She’s the real hero though. This 5-year-old girl is a cancer survivor and is about to make other cancer patients feel better.
Ava will help to deliver warm blankets and stuffed animals to some of the kids at Rady Children’s Hospital.
The idea has become a reality, thanks to Frank Subaru in National City.
"This month of June, we partnered with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of SD and the Hawaii chapter and all month long asked our customers and employees to write messages of hope to children battling cancer at Rady Children’s Hospital," said Monica Salem, the marketing directing for Frank Subaru.
"When you come here you are isolated in many many ways. A lot of our families don’t have family here so when an organization like Frank steps up and wants to give a stuffed animal and blankets which are things the kids can really hold onto, it really shows that the community is coming forward and showing support," said Kathlene Seymour of the SD Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Little Ava understands what the children at Rady’s are going through. She spent a lot of time in the hospital after being diagnosed with Leukemia when she was just 17 months old.
"She went through chemotherapy and went into remission and about a year later she came out of remission," said Ava’s mother, Shannon Foster. "So she went through additional chemotherapy … radiation … And then she had an umbilical cord stem cell transplant in 2013."
Now, three years later, with the help of her doctor, Dr. Eric Anderson, she is doing well.
"She has so much energy, so much personality. Honestly if you didn’t know her story, you would never know she was sick," Shannon Foster said.
Ava is now helping to spread the love and gestures of hope.
