Parent with a purpose

Learn about: Parent with a purpose from Mickey Guisewite,...
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Parent with a purpose

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I was inspired to start The Bottomless Toy Chest after my son went through seven very difficult months of cancer treatment and spent most of those months in the hospital. I found that the more I could direct his attention from all the difficult things that were happening to him and help re-direct him on to something more positive, the better he responded to his treatment, the easier it was for the doctors to treat him. His days were -- while he was hooked up to IV bags -- his days were filled with model train sets with airplane building kits, with cars he could paint. These things really helped re-direct and focus his attention and help him cope with his disease. I also started The Bottomless Toy Chest because of other families I met while he was going through treatment. Many parent have to work to help maintain insurance benefits. Of course, they want to be there for their sick child, but they can't. To go by room after room and see kids facing cancer treatment alone, it was really heartbreaking for me. Many of the children that we see, have very low immune systems. They are too sick to use the hospital playrooms that other children are able to use. The Bottomless Toy Chest comes in -- I don't think of us delivering toys. What we really do is deliver hope. We deliver joy. We give a child who is going through life-threatening illness and experiencing very difficult treatments, an opportunity to escape that hospital environment and enter into the rich world of his imagination, where anything is possible.

Learn about: Parent with a purpose from Mickey Guisewite,...

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Mickey Guisewite

Parent with a Purpose

Mickey Guisewite is a former advertising executive and syndicated newspaper columnist who started The Bottomless Toy Chest after her son successfully completed cancer treatment. The Bottomless Toy Chest is a nonprofit organization devoted to delivering toys, crafts and hands-on activities to hospitalized pediatric cancer patients. Mickey lives at home with her husband, son, daughter, two dogs, two cats and two turtles. When she’s not delivering toys to sick kids, she’s at home trying to find a tiny space on the couch among her two-legged and four-legged family members. 

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