From the Radel Family of New Hartford, NY

Psychologists say a “flashbulb memory” is an extraordinarily vivid and highly detailed “snapshot” of a moment when you received surprising, highly consequential information. Our family will always have a flashbulb memory of August 26, 2021, when we heard the words “Hodgkin lymphoma” applied to our 17-year-old, otherwise perfectly healthy, son Luke. For Luke’s mom Mary, the words were a bitter echo of her own battle with the disease as a teenager. For all of us, the words changed our lives in an instant, as our priorities shifted from college visits to chemo treatments; from senior portraits to PET scans; from cross country practices to clinical trial consents.

In such challenging times, you not only rely on your inner purpose and values, but also on a supporting network of family, friends and professionals. We were fortunate to find the knowledgeable, supportive team of pediatric cancer care specialists at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital in Syracuse. The travel to and from our home was inconsequential; the care and skill offered at the Children’s Hospital is exceptional. When your child’s future is on the line, the questions are innumerous regarding treatment, symptoms, side-effects, long-term effects – the list goes on. We were (and are) so grateful for the obvious skill and consideration the entire team at Upstate gave to our questions and to Luke’s treatment.

After spending a night in the pediatric cancer unit at the Children’s Hospital, we felt a deep bond with other families on a similar journey. While each family’s situation is unique and many faced challenges more significant than ours – and under circumstances less privileged than ours – once you have slept by your child’s hospital bedside, you share a common experience that can be hard to describe, difficult to endure, impossible to forget.

Our family has decided to do something to support our fellow travelers on this journey – by helping to improve sleeping arrangements for parents staying overnight in the hospital with their child. We are honored to establish the #LimeforLuke Pediatric Cancer Fund* at the Upstate Foundation to provide amenities to make a child’s hospital room a more comfortable place for family members to rest and restore themselves as they provide reassurance to their child through the night. Life goes on after your flashbulb moment, although it is never the same. Hope endures after a difficult diagnosis, but not without moments of crisis and challenge. It is in such moments that we rely on each other for support. We hope the #LimeforLuke Pediatric Cancer Fund will be a part of that support for many families in the future.

*Lime is the symbolic color for lymphoma awareness.

Pictured (l-r) – Pat, Mark, Mary, John Paul and Luke