Swifty Family Forum a Rousing Success

I think you can imagine the trepidation I felt going to a two-day meeting of families all of whom had lost a child to brain cancer. My stomach hurt at the thought of facing that much pain in one room.

Guess what? We laughed, we cried, we shared 3 things everyone should know about our child and we brainstormed ways to educate and advocate for autopsy tissue donation across the country.

This meeting was the launch of Gift From a Child, a Swifty led initiative to change the childhood cancer culture. Although most people today consent to be an organ donor, when I was young, almost no one considered donating their organs. It is now seen as a way to bring some good from tragedy. Today, very few physicians, hospice workers and families see the value of autopsy tissue donation as a way to bring some good from unimaginable tragedy.

Gift From a Child seeks to change that through advocacy, education and partnership. In early 2019, a new website and social media campaign will be launched. Each family at the Philadelphia meeting was videotaped telling their tissue donation story. The videos will be on the website for families to hear first hand about why autopsy donation is good for both research and families.

These passionate families who traveled from across the country will begin a grass roots movement that includes advocating for autopsy donations at hospitals and companioning other families considering a donation. You will be hearing lots more about Gift From a Child in the coming year.

I’ll close by saying there were many special moments at the meeting, but having families thank Swifty for providing the program that allowed them to donate their child’s tissue was so gratifying. Michael’s Master Plan became the post mortem (autopsy) program that is facilitating these donations.

That program is made possible thanks to your donations. So when those families were thanking me, thanking Swifty, they were also thanking you … our friends and supporters!