A letter from Rene A. Giacalone, Executive Director, The Honeysuckle Foundation.

Thank you so much for considering our Foundation as a Charity of the Month on Kathie Lee's website.  We are truly a grassroots Foundation based on the desire of my daughter (who has completed her treatment for bone cancer) to help other families maintain a reasonable 'quality of life' while undergoing intense treatment.
 
When the diagnosis of cancer is given to a family, the emotional rollercoaster they will embark upon is the most intense and grueling that anyone should have to face.  Unfortunately, the focus becomes strictly medical, and the non-tangible care of emotional well-being is very typically overlooked.  From my own personal experience however, I know firsthand, that this is the time everyone needs the emotional attention just as much as medical.  Not only the patient, but the siblings and other family members as well. 
 
My daughter Alicia's cancer was a fairly aggressive form of bone cancer.  When we first got her diagnosis and given the odds of survival at 70-75% we were grateful for those odds, but wished they were 100%.  My mind kept on racing thinking, "what about that other 25-30%?"  I was very aware, and still am today, that we are not out of the woods and that if her cancer does return she might not survive.  So I made a conscious decision in the initial days that I was going to give her and her siblings a remarkable year of experiences and memories.  Heaven forbid she was to succumb to this deadly disease, at least her last memories and our last memories of her would be ones of laughter, silliness and fun.  A funny thing happened on our journey through chemotherapy and radiation..........she was so emotionally content and happy, the therapies that made most every other patient horribly sick, made Alicia only minimally ill.  My friends, family and neighbors (we live on Honeysuckle Court) helped in keeping our lives full and rich.
 
Now that we have started this Foundation we hope to be able to assist other families in need.  One of the main things lacking  is the funding for the Social-Emotional program of pediatric oncology.    I have met with the Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at Schneider Children's Hospital , part of the North Shore/LIJ Healthsystem (where Alicia had treatment) and have been asked to secure funding in the amount of $150,000 annually for The Honeysuckle Foundation's Psychosocial Program for Children With Cancer and Blood Disorders at Schneider Children's Hospital.  As the executive director of the Honeysuckle Foundation for Children with Cancer  and as a parent of a child who has battled cancer, this has now become my mission in life.  I am very fortunate in that Alicia is here with us today.  Unfortunately, I have met and witnessed other parents who were not so lucky. 
 
I am asking your assistance in any way you possibly can to help this dream become a reality.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  I appreciate your time and effort in reviewing our Foundation's request.
 
Thank You and God Bless!
Rene A. Giacalone
Executive Director
Honeysuckle Foundation for Children With Cancer