we stepped onto the seventh floor of El Paso Children\u2019s Hospital, home to the Southwest University Blood and Cancer Center<\/a>. For a little while, a place normally associated with appointments, treatments and some incredibly difficult days looked a lot more like a dance floor.<\/p>\nPatients, families, hospital staff and supporters came together to bring some joy into the middle of a very serious conversation: childhood cancer.<\/p>\n
Turning Personal Loss Into Advocacy<\/p>\n
The celebration was fun. The stories behind it were anything but simple.<\/p>\n
One of the advocates we spoke with came to this work first as a parent. Her daughter was treated for cancer at a children\u2019s hospital and fought the disease for eight months. That experience eventually became the reason she wanted to speak publicly about childhood cancer and make sure other families felt the support of their community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do want to speak up to the community. I do want to bring awareness,\u201d she told us. \u201cI wanted to do something in her memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also remembered the impact visits from law enforcement had on her own family, which inspired her to involve officers in supporting children going through treatment.<\/p>\n
The goal is simple but meaningful: make sure children facing cancer know they are not alone.<\/p>\n
Survivors Showing Up for the Next Child<\/p>\n
That idea of simply showing up came up again and again.<\/p>\n
We also heard from a two-time cancer survivor who now gives his time to connect with children facing an experience he knows personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always here now, giving my time so I could meet new kids, talk to kids, and raise awareness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That perspective is hard to shake.<\/p>\n
When someone who has been through cancer treatment can walk back into that environment and sit with a child who is still in it, there is an understanding that does not need much explaining.<\/p>\n
Another survivor talked about what it feels like to see children still going through the same fight. Even after your own treatment ends, there are other kids and families whose lives are still being shaped by cancer.<\/p>\n
Making Room for Kids to Be Kids<\/p>\n
And that is really what caught me about this day.<\/p>\n
The music, dancing and activities were not there to pretend the difficult parts were not happening. They were there because the difficult parts are happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cA child is not supposed to be at a hospital bed,\u201d one advocate told us. \u201cA child is supposed to be out in a playground.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentence stayed with me.<\/p>\n
Kids are supposed to be thinking about school, friends and what they want to do after class. For children receiving chemotherapy and other cancer treatments, life can suddenly look very different.<\/p>\n
Creating activities that get them out of bed, give them something to look forward to and remind them that an entire community sees them matters.<\/p>\n
Sometimes joy does not need to solve the problem. Sometimes it just needs to give a child a break from it.<\/p>\n
Pediatric Cancer Care Here in El Paso<\/p>\n
The Southwest University Blood and Cancer Center at El Paso Children\u2019s Hospital provides pediatric cancer care for children and families here in the Borderland.<\/p>\n
The hospital\u2019s pediatric cancer program brings specialized care closer to home for families who may already be navigating an overwhelming diagnosis, treatment schedules and everything that comes with caring for a sick child.<\/p>\n
What we saw on the seventh floor was another side of that care.<\/p>\n
There were medical professionals doing incredibly serious work, but there were also people making room for children to laugh, dance, spend time with other people and, for a moment, just be kids.<\/p>\n
One advocate described what that kind of community support can mean for a child:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt changes a child\u2019s mind. It gives them more of a fight.\u201dA Different Kind of Medicine<\/p>\n
I think that is why the dancing made sense.<\/p>\n
Nobody in that room needed to be reminded how serious childhood cancer is. The patients know. Their parents know. The doctors and nurses certainly know.<\/p>\n
This day was about making sure cancer did not get to occupy every moment.<\/p>\n
It was about bringing people together, raising awareness and giving kids something joyful in the middle of circumstances no child should have to face.<\/p>\n
For a little while, the seventh floor became a dance floor.<\/p>\n
And honestly, that may have been exactly what was needed.<\/p>\n
El Paso Children’s Hospital Childhood Cancer Awareness (Courtesy: KFOX14)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Paso, Texas (KFOX14) \u2014 There are some stories where you walk in expecting to cover an event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-450409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}