Donor funds help family stay together during 8-year-old’s cancer treatment
The Vaerewyck family has always been outdoorsy— riding bikes, hiking, camping and adventuring around their home in Mount Vernon, Wash. Those adventures had to move indoors when their eldest son Dominic, 8, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in April 2022.
“We were at a friend’s place, and I heard my son screaming for me and there was blood in his urine,” Dominic’s mom, Eliane says. “I took him that same week to see a pediatric urologist. They did some testing including a CT scan and discovered that there was a huge mass in his kidney.”
The family had to act quick as the tumor needed to be removed as soon as possible. Four days later they packed up and drove two and a half hours to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.
Cancer treatment nearly 100 miles from home
Dominic’s surgery was a success, but it was recommended he follow up with 33 weeks of chemotherapy, alternating between a daytime dosage in the Mary Bridge Children’s Outpatient Center hematology/oncology clinic, overnight treatments in the hospital, and treatment that needed a five-day stay. This required a lot of time on the road — which is where the donor-powered Helping Hands fund and Mary Bridge Children’s social worker, Jessica Pabst, MSW, LICSW, came to the rescue.
“As an oncology social worker, I meet with families at the time of diagnosis and continue to work alongside them throughout their cancer journey,” Jessica says. “I provide psychosocial support to the whole family, assessing mental health and financial needs, identifying barriers to care and ensuring there’s good communication with the medical team. I partner with community resources to ensure families have the support they need emotionally and financially.”
Dominic finds comfort during treatment with his friend, Olaf, facility dog at Mary Bridge Children’s.
Donor community lends a helping hand
A diagnosis like cancer is very costly for families between medical expenses, transportation and lodging, often creating a significant financial burden. To help families focus on the health and healing of their child, social workers like Jessica use the Helping Hands fund — supported by generous community donations — to alleviate some of these burdens.
“The Helping Hands fund provides resources to families like gas, meal assistance and lodging,” Jessica says. “In Dominic’s situation, he and his family live more than two hours away and often needed a local hotel room to ensure he could make early morning appointments or to allow family to stay closer when he was hospitalized. There are times that Dominic’s medication causes nausea and having somewhere to stay helped him avoid multiple long car rides when he had to return the next day for an appointment. It’s also allowed the family to stay together during his treatment rather than be separated for weeks at a time.”
The fund also helped provide the Vaerewyck family with grocery and gas cards to combat expenses.
“Thank you to everyone who has given. It’s been very helpful to be closer to the hospital when we needed it and just less stress on my husband and me trying to figure out the details of where we were going to stay and how much it was going to cost,” Eliane says.
You can support families like Dominic’s as they face a cancer diagnosis with a gift to the Helping Hands Fund at supportmarybridge.org.