WASHINGTON 鈥� A family-run organization is giving back this holiday season to those traveling a path they know all too well: the fight against pediatric cancer.
“We not only bring toys at Christmastime, but we do help families throughout the year with expenses, whether it be utilities, or their rent or mortgage, or times like this. If you can鈥檛 get gifts for your kids for Christmas, we鈥檒l help with that 鈥� whatever we can do to help,鈥� said Brandi Garrett of聽, whose daughter, Madison, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2012.
At the fifth annual Christmas Maddy Wagons of H.O.P.E. 鈥� Happiness, Optimism, Peace and Excitement 鈥� a聽collection of wagons stocked with toys and a couch full of comfy聽blankets decked The Ronald McDonald Family Room at Children’s National Health System in Northwest D.C. on the Friday before Christmas.
Madison has been in remission nearly four years now, but聽Garrett said when she, her husband Edwin and the entire family were in the throes of her daughter’s cancer battle, she could not imagine at the time that they鈥檇 be conducting an annual toy giveaway.
Although Garrett said “it鈥檚 like becoming a member of a club you never wanted to be a part of,” a major thread in their mission is showing other parents and families that they鈥檙e not alone in this fight 鈥� and there is hope.
“Regardless of what it looks like from day to day, or regardless of what statistics are thrown at you or what numbers are thrown at you, you just really have to hold on to that faith, that thing that you can鈥檛 see because what you see in front of you seems pretty bleak.”
Garrett said even though Madison is no longer battling cancer, she and her family are still in the fight to help other families and join other organizations in trips to Capitol Hill to advocate for more funding for pediatric cancer research.
