Children’s Mercy Heart Center team understands the value of our patients and their family members connecting with other heart families outside of the hospital setting. This allows them to share stories, experiences, and learn from and support one another. Building these supportive connections is so important. We are grateful that HopeKids provides such a wide variety of memorable experiences for families!

My name is Dr. Jennifer Domm, and I have been practicing as a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and stem cell transplant physician at The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial for many years. My team and I are forever grateful to the ongoing support and collaboration with HopeKids in the state of Tennessee. HopeKids has been generously giving assistance in many forms to our patients and their families for the last few years. I cannot emphasize enough how much this has made a difference in their lives. Many of our patients come to clinic several times per week and many travel significant distances to access our highly specialized care. As you can imagine, this takes a tremendous toll on families. Families may be separated for prolonged periods of time, and parents often need to take a leave of absence from work due to the intensive treatment plans. This puts an incredible financial strain on an already emotionally draining and stressful situation. HopeKids gives patients and their families the opportunity to participate in activities in the community that they may otherwise not be able to afford. This fosters a sense of community among people going through similar hardships. These opportunities also give the entire family time to be together with a sense of “normalcy” in the unpredictable world of pediatric oncology. As a medical team, we are so grateful to work with HopeKids. I can tell you that these services are so appreciated for all children battling cancer in the state of Tennessee. I am grateful that HopeKids wants to meet more of the needs of our patients, their families, and their support system and that they continue to expand. HopeKids continues to provide the children of Tennessee with much-needed emotional support. For that, we, as a medical team, are forever grateful.

We cannot even begin to give enough thanks to this amazing organization. When we first learned about Theo’s complex heart defect, we worried about not being able to do fun activities as a family due to the limitations of his illness. We worried about Theo not having the same opportunities as his healthy peers, and we worried about his older brother being limited in his activities to help keep Theo safe, resulting in growing resentment. However, HopeKids has provided us endless opportunities to not only have fun as a family but also have the opportunity to meet other families living a similar life as us. How refreshing! This connection has been so important for us parents, for Theo to see other kids who also have some special needs, and for his big brother Noah to meet other siblings who also have the unspoken pressure of being the healthy child in the family. HopeKids provides us a sense of relief from the stress of life, and we are FOREVER grateful for their ongoing love, prayers, and support!

HopeKids is such a blessing to our family! We’ve been able to attend events that we never would have been able to attend! We love the variety of events that are available. Anytime we go to an event, people are so kind to us.  It makes my kids feel so special to participate/attend these amazing events! It is such a wonderful break from therapies and medications. Thank you so much for all you do to make these opportunities available to us and other families like ours! It makes a world of difference to us!