Camp Okizu is a non-profit dedicated to supporting children and families affected by childhood cancer, including 4-year-old Beckett Boznanski.<\/p>\n
“That was a very painful moment,” Tim said.<\/p>\n
Their 6-year-old was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer – acute myeloid leukemia or AML.<\/p>\n
“I really felt like I had an out-of-body experience… I really felt like I floated out of my own body. And was watching these people talk, and not feeling like it was my life,” Linda Yang, Mabel’s mother said.<\/p>\n
Mabel had to be admitted and treated immediately at UCSF. Linda and Tim went from thinking about family dinner to facing questions about blood transfusions and clinical trials.<\/p>\n
“So really in those moments, so your whole world… everything you know seems to shift,” Linda said.<\/p>\n
From then on, their home became the hospital.<\/p>\n
“Her line is attached to her, and the line is attached to all the medicine… so she has a pole, sort of like best buddy for the next seven or eight months – it’s inseparable from her. You don’t realize when you take her to surgery – that that’s the last time she’ll be independent,” Linda said.<\/p>\n
Mabel’s 4-year-old sister Sammy said, “Well… I didn’t get to see her much.”<\/p>\n
They cherished the rare moments together. “When I visit her… I would think… it might be my only time with her,” Sammy said.<\/p>\n
MORE: Camp Okizu: Parent shares Bay Area nonprofit’s mission to support children with cancer ahead of gala<\/a><\/p>\n For years, the family tried to hold onto any semblance of normalcy.<\/p>\n “It can be very isolating, this experience…” Tim said.<\/p>\n And Mabel didn’t give up. Through holidays in the hospital, she kept fighting, and finding strength through music.<\/p>\n Then two years later, in January of 2022, with the support of her doctors and nurses, the 8-year-old rang the bell.<\/p>\n She survived. And could finally go home.<\/p>\n “We sort of turned the corner in the hallway and all these nurses, her doctors were there, gathered, and they had made a poster,” Linda said.<\/p>\n While the family grappled with what life would be like in remission, around that same hallway another poster could be seen with the words “Okizu.”<\/p>\n “I don’t think we had any idea the kind of impact it would have,” Linda said.<\/p>\n In the years that followed, Mabel and her family attended Camp Okizu.<\/p>\n VIDEO: Young California boy saves father’s life with stem cell donation: ‘He’s my hero’<\/a><\/p>\n “It’s a camp for kids and their families who went through cancer,” Mabel said.<\/p>\n It gave her strength and healing.<\/p>\n “It was nice to see other people that were like me,” Mabel said.<\/p>\n A safe space for siblings, the silent warriors.<\/p>\n “I can talk to anyone there about it, if I have to,” Mabel’s sister Sammy said.<\/p>\n All through the power of community.<\/p>\n “I feel like there’s a burden I can put down for a moment. And be present with my self, my family and everyone around you… you don’t have to worry,” Tim said.<\/p>\n “You know, everyone can breathe… and feel a little easier and I think the girls do feel that… and I see that,” Linda said.<\/p>\n
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