Today we’d like to introduce you to Trish Anderson.
Trish, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My daughter Lilly was born in July 2012 as beautiful as could be. I could have never imagined what was brewing inside of her tiny newborn body. I found An eraser sized mass on her chest wall when she was six days old and every doctor and specialist quickly misdiagnosed it for a birthmark and diagnosed me with postpartum depression instead. It continued to grow and grow and grow and I continued to fight to find a specialist who would take us seriously And by the time she was three months old, the bump was now the size of a golf ball And was starting to affect her breathing. After what seemed like war to find a hospital that could properly Scan or biopsy her, Or take our situation seriously, we were placed on a three-month waitlist. There was no way I was going to wait three more months. So I waited in the surgery department for a cancellation and my daughter was in surgery one week later to have the mass biopsied. My sweet innocent little girl was just three months old, and when the surgeon came out he told me instead of biopsying it, he scraped every bit of it out that he noticed was growing from in between her chest wall bones. One week later, I got a phone call that my sweet blue-eyed baby girl had cancer. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it was a form of cancer that has never been researched so they had no form of treatment protocol or any information to give us. My sweet little girl had Ewing sarcoma growing in her chest that they decided she was born with. My baby was born with cancer. Most Ewing sarcoma cases are in teenage boys and in long bones like arm leg or hips. With Lilly being an infant, a female and it being on her chest wall, she had every indication of how incredibly rare her case was, and her oncologist decided her best option for survival would be adult strength and form chemotherapy. She started on Thanksgiving day she was 3 1/2 months old and had no idea what life was even like but had to fight for it. She had seven rounds of chemo. Each round of chemo lasted five days, and it took everything out of her. She then had her chest wall reconstructive surgery where they took out a portion of her chest wall to create clean margins when she was simply seven months old. She followed that by seven more rounds of adult strength and form chemotherapy. The treatment was so intense that she fell into septic shock The very next day after completing treatment and she is here today only because of the fight she put up past every single doctor’s expectation. We spend every single holiday of her first year of life inside the hospital and quickly learned that the life outside the glass disappeared when Cancer picked your child. The horrible truth is that childhood cancer is the number one killer of children in the US and that every two minutes, another child is diagnosed. I myself thought it was rare but the truth is, it is so incredibly common it’s terrifying. Without help from people like us and people who have personally lived one day at a time within those Walls you would never guess that there are no holidays Within the Glass or financial bill assistance Programs since clearly A parent has to be out of work, or organizations or programs set up to assist families who are battling childhood cancer. We started by stealing back holidays within the glass one holiday at a time for every child inpatient, then when Lilly became cancer-free, we started mailing them to children nationwide. Then we started throwing surprise cancer-free and birthday celebrations with the help of hundreds of thousands of people around the country through our social media pages! Then A day I wish upon no one came when one of Lilly’s best friends she was diagnosed with and went to treatment with passed away from relapsed cancer. It was her mission to fully fund her funeral. She put jars around town and rallied her army nationwide, and was only five years old but had the fight of a 30-year-old. She did it in two days and I know it was her way of being guided where she was needed most. She has now been cancer-free for six years, has lost seven of her friends, Provided over 5500 care packages to children battling cancer nationwide, and 365 days a year assists with emergency financial grants for Bill assistance, second opinion travel expenses, gas and food needs, dream granting and so much more while she continues to fight her own battles
Against childhood cancer and the aftermath that this horrible disease places on our future generation. We are an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation with nearly 1000 children within our care nationwide who we proudly Rise beside 365days a year, Led by my seven-year-old cancer survivor who clearly Knows more about the meaning of life than most adults ever see for one day.
Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t think any road in life is truly smooth, but I do know with every bump and swerve we’ve done it together and that’s all that matters. In the six years she has been in remission she has had nearly seven relapse scares, and now battles the aftermath of chemotherapy like gum disease, chest wall growth abnormalities, no taste or feeling in her mouth that one spot, PTSD, A seizure, reduced lung capacity, nerve problems that affect numbness and tingling into many other things but She doesn’t let anything stand in her Way and lives her best life every day.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The team Lilly Foundation story. Tell us more about the organization.
The team Lilly Foundation is our official 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation that assists children nationwide battling childhood cancer. We currently have nearly 1000 children from the age of six weeks old to 18 years old that we assist in many different forms. Some of our main assistance programs are: Financial grants for bill assistance, mortgage payments, gas and food needs, emergency second opinion travel needs, dream grants, dream birthday party/cancer-free celebration, and on to many days funerals. To date, we have sent out over 5500 care packages and every Easter, Halloween and Christmas we supply hundreds of children nationwide stuck in hospitals and other places Cancer has them with a full holiday package! Last year alone, we assisted with over $90,000 in funeral assistance alone and the truth is we fight to be everything and anything each and every child needs. I think what sets us apart from others is that we personally know the road and the bumps and curves and that helps us to assist them in ways we know ourselves is the lifeblood to survive the war of childhood cancer. We strive to assist each child for their specific independent need to give them the personal love and support they deserve!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We never could’ve imagined how fast we would grow to what we are today and the heartbreaking fact is that this many need us in the gravity that they do RIGHT NOW! We fight to grow bigger than Cancer beside these families everyday because we know we’re stronger together. This year we are launching our first ever hospital take over mission platform where we will travel the nation to put on dream celebrations within the glass!
Contact Info:
- Address: Team Lilly PO Box 21022 San Bernardino, CA 92406
- Website: Www.teamlillyFoundation.org
- Email: hello@teamlillyFoundation.org
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