The next St. Jude Dream Home is being built in the Union community of Ballyshannon, and the mother of one child who was treated at St. Jude attended the celebration Tuesday.
Bonnie Collins told the story of her daughter, Maya, Tuesday at the site of the new home. Maya has since died, but the impact of St. Jude inspired Collins to share her daughter’s story.
When Maya initially began to feel ill, doctors couldn’t figure out what the problem was.
After nine months and no answers, lab work finally identified the problem.
Maya was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, one of the toughest cancers to treat.
“Maya was bombarded with the worst forms of chemotherapy known to man, it just wiped out all her cells,” Collins said. “She experienced fevers that kept her on ice. She was so nauseous she vomited over and over again for days. Pain so bad she just literally begged to be put out of her misery — a parent’s worst nightmare.”
In 2011, Maya received her first bone marrow transplant from a donor from Michigan. A few months later, she relapsed, needing a second bone marrow transplant. She remained at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical center for sixth months to receive a second bone marrow transplant from a donor who, ironically enough, lived only 20 minutes from her first donor.
“You may not know this, but each bone marrow transplant costs $1 million,” Collins said. “So when we were at Cincinnati Children’s we received two bills from those, thankfully my husband works at P&G, but we still paid about $50,000 out of our pocket, so you can imagine for a family that doesn’t have insurance or benefits what this does.”
In the Summer of 2016, Maya again felt off. The family talked with other doctors outside of Children’s and before they knew it, St. Jude flew Maya and her mother to Memphis with what Collins described as “a ton of hope.”
At St. Jude a child is never billed for care, housing, travel or treatment. They also provide stipends for groceries, a school within the hospital, workshops for drawing and painting, huge Halloween and Christmas celebrations, and rooms that celebrities have made special for the kids at St. Jude such as the Taylor Swift Room and Sean White Room.
St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway is a fundraiser for the hospital. People can purchase raffle tickets to win the home, and that money goes directly toward care for children at St. Jude’s.
Through money raised for tickets to win the St. Jude Dream Home, Fischer Homes was able to raise a total of $23 million, all going toward the mission of St. Jude. This home in Union is one of 650 homes that have been built to raise money in collaboration with St. Jude.
“Remember that cancer is not planned,” said Carrie Rogiers, marketing manager of Fischer Homes. “But St. Jude is there for them and becomes their saving grace one patient’s family at a time. They are the light on their darkest day, and because of the dream home and other individual campaigns, they keep treating the patients and their families.”
For tickets to future dream home giveaways, and more information on the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway, click here.