Mending the Broken Places
- Stacie Eirich
- Mar 27
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 10
In August of 2024, my 16-year-old brain cancer survivor, Sadie, and I had the honor of speaking with Mark Levine, who hosts the podcast Help & Hope Happen Here. Mark’s mission is to raise pediatric cancer awareness and help make the lives of pediatric cancer survivors and caregivers easier.
To date, he has published 5 seasons with over 440 episodes, speaking with oncologists, nurses, caregivers, parents, patients and leaders of pediatric cancer foundations & organizations. What a tremendous gift to the pediatric cancer community! Our family and many others are grateful to have such a strong advocate on our side. Thank you, Mark. 🙏🎗️
If you missed the episode where Sadie and I spoke about diagnosis, surgeries and treatment — here’s the link: Stacie & Sadie on Help & Hope Happen Here, Aug. 22, 2024
I recently caught up with Mark again, this time on my own, to speak about life after treatment. In this conversation, we talked about hard truths: dealing with long term side effects, challenges in gaining accommodations at school, losing prior friendships, struggles to regain a teen identity and build new friendships, and planning for an adult future that will include visits to specialists for life.
While some of the things we spoke about are physical needs brought on by the tumor or treatment, many are the mental, social and emotional fallout from a pediatric cancer diagnosis.
What I hope listeners take from this episode, as well as the earlier episode with Sadie — is that while pediatric cancer has taken much from us, it hasn’t taken away our ability to move forward, and to remain hopeful.
It was hard to speak with Mark about our loss of friends from before cancer, hard to tell him that Sadie has suffered bullying words at school and is struggling to find acceptance and build new friendships with teens. And it was hard to answer questions about things we don’t know, including long-term prognosis and how Sadie will navigate young adult life in a world where ableism is rampant.
A year and a half after treatment, our family is now well aware of how some people discriminate against those with disabilities, neurodivergence, and differences. We have fought and advocated for our child in hospitals, clinics and schools. We have reached out to help our child make new friends and navigate tough social situations. And we will continue to do so, through our survivor’s high school and college careers, and likely beyond.
We have lived beside families who have since lost their children to cancer. We have watched and attended the funerals of a 13-year-old and a 7-year-old. A week ago, another young friend ended his battle with medulloblastoma and time on earth at the age of 9. We know how lucky we are to have Sadie still with us, with mostly invisible disabilities and a chance at life after cancer. For this, we are forever grateful.
But it doesn’t take away the scars we still have from experiencing childhood cancer. It doesn’t take away the pain of losing friends in the battle and watching their parents and siblings face life without them. Sharing our experience with others, shining a light at the reality of what a childhood cancer battle is like, during and afterwards — is the only way to raise awareness.
And with awareness comes hope.
Thank you for reading, for listening, and for being in our small but mighty circle. Together, we are mending the broken places and moving forward.
💛🎗️
In hope,
Stacie
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