Your Child Has Cancer. Now What? A Parent’s Guide (Guest Cheryl Adams)

You never see it coming. It shatters your world, marking simply the before-and-after. Parenting a child through a cancer diagnosis or other life-threatening illness is an overwhelming journey. It will tax and test the entire family, creating the ultimate balancing act as you ride the rollercoaster of medical, emotional, and academic needs. At the forefront of it all is the never-ending worry that you may lose your treasured child.  If you have found yourself in this situation, catch your breath. We’re diving into the hard conversation and advice from those who have been in your shoes.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

✅ How to tell your child the bad news at any age

✅ The value of calmness and an “appointment buddy”

✅ Balancing the needs of siblings and family

✅ Parenting and managing teenage independence during cancer treatment

✅ How to build an academic support system.

✅ Strength of mind and body for the patient and parent

Links

🔶 Parenting Through the Unimaginable: https://bit.ly/4tjCYFe

🔶 More Tips for Parenting Through Cancer: https://bit.ly/3NKeiXH

🔶 Teen Cancer America; Support for Teens and Young Adults: https://teencanceramerica.org/

🔶 Ulman Foundation; Support for Teens and Young Adults: https://ulmanfoundation.org/

Claire Marie Foundation Mission

“ The Claire Marie Foundation provides clarity and hope in the fight against adolescent and young adult melanoma through awareness, education and prevention.

Follow and Connect

🔶 www.clairemariefoundation.org

🔶 www.clairemariefoundation.org

🔶Instagram

🔶Facebook

🔶 LinkTree

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, everyone. I'm Marianne Bannister with the Claire Murray Foundation. Thank you again for joining us here today. You know, as anyone raising a child knows, there are moments of absolute joy, anxiety, and a lifetime of stress. You know, it's as parents, all we really want is for them to flourish and become their best selves as adults. That's our ultimate goal, of course. But imagine if your child's world and then your entire family's world is up-ended with a diagnosis of cancer. All of a sudden, your parenting takes a new road. It takes a road into navigating not only the medical concerns, but the problem of deciding how to preserve some form of childhood for your young one as they're going through this. Joining me today is another melanoma mom who knows this road far too well. Cheryl Adams is going to join us as we discuss the ways we found to challenge ourselves and raise our children as we face this unexpected fight. As I always say, there is not a stronger force than that of a ticked-off parent. Be it a mama bear or a papa bear. If your child is threatened in some way, be it by disease or some other force, watch out. Joining me today from Minneapolis is Cheryl Adams, a mother of eight, stepmom to two more. And that includes your son Graham, who was diagnosed with melanoma at the age of nine. Thank you, Cheryl, so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me. You know, as you have spent this last decade and I've met you over time, uh, you have become such a strong force and a leader in advocacy to help find cures and answers and treatments in the scope of melanoma in pediatrics. And of course, that travels into young adults. But you've also taken a really strong voice in helping other parents who all of a sudden have this ball in their lap and how to navigate it. And that's why I think your information, uh, we were talking about this ahead of time, and it was like, oh, that happened to me, oh, that happened to me, and oh my God, you know, all of a sudden, I think we have between us the shared information that can really help people who find they're not only facing cancer, primarily, is what we're going to talk about, but also it affects any other life-threatening disease for a child or a chronic condition for a child. But to begin with, can you just fill us in a little bit on Graham's story, who happily now we know is 22. So it's a good ending to his story.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

It is a good ending. It is a good ending. Um, it took us a long time to get to 22 with all of those stresses and challenges. But Graham is 22. He was diagnosed in 2013 at the age of nine with stage three melanoma. And you think about a little nine-year-old, he couldn't even say melanoma. He called it lemonola, and he just didn't even know what to say. And like you said, it hits you like a ton of bricks, and that pit in your stomach never leaves. And all of a sudden, I mean, I I thought I had this motherhood thing down. He was number seven of eight. And I believed in my mind that I had faced every challenge that a mom could face good, bad, ugly, and otherwise. And then they tell you your child has cancer. Not only do they have cancer, but they have melanoma, which kids don't get, and they don't know what to do with you, and they don't have an algorithm that says if your child has cancer, this is what the next steps are. Um, so we had to you know navigate all those things, where to go, which plan to take, and um, and where to start.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

How did you have that conversation with him at nine? Did he understand he had cancer? I mean, with Claire, for instance, we weren't allowed to use the word cancer or melanoma. You know, we could just say the M-word. And again, she was 14, so she could say melanoma. But um, you know, there's these routes that you need to manage so they understand and they're engaged. I mean, what did you how did you tell them? How did you get this started with them?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I remember the day. I remember the day. They called me at work and confirmed. Um, and I work at a hospital. So again, you like to think that you have the upper hand because you have that medical knowledge. Um I discovered pretty quickly this was uncharted territory. And so I actually went to Graham's school that day and picked him up from second grade, where his teacher always would say that he was the um homecoming king of the second grade. He was super social and loved everything. And I had to tell him that day because the next day they were going to do the white excision. And so I pulled him out and I remember sitting him, sitting next to him on the couch and saying, I have to tell you something. Um, that little spot on your arm that we named Adolf came back, and it's something called melanoma. And he said, Okay, how bad is it? Is this like uh I get a new video game or is this I get a new video game system? Kind of understood. Um, and then I had to use the word cancer because I knew that when we went in the next day that there was going to be discussion of that. So the first thing out of his little mouth was, Am I going to die?

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

As a mom and a medical professional, I mean it's an adult conversation. You don't want to say maybe, but you know that that's a possibility. And the doctors had already kind of prepped me, um, not what to tell him, but you know, this is this is rough. And so I told him that he is in good hands and we are going to do the best that we can do to get him the health care that he needed.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

It is unnerving because I feel like when Claire was going in for her first surgery, I could see on her face that her innocence was gone. Yeah. That idea of as a young child that you're untouchable and everything. And all of a sudden, it it just there was a different look on her face. Do you remember seeing that? It was like there's I always say there's the before and there's the after.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

And it's funny that you say that because that's how we like I'll look at pictures and I can tell by the look in his eyes if that was before Graham got sick or after Graham got sick. It robbed his childhood. It stole so much, so much from him. And then, you know, little boys are little boys, but as he got just a tiny bit older and he's playing on a school iPad, they're boys. I don't want to necessarily know what they're looking up online. But I do remember one time um catching him, and I'm thinking, oh gosh, what kind of conversation am I gonna have? Thinking it might be something sinister. And what he was looking up was I have stage three cancer, how long do I have to live? And he was mine, and so I think that even though he put a brave front on, um he knew deep down that this was bad, um, even though he couldn't say melanoma.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Impacts you had so many other children in your family, you had a large family, it impacts everyone in the family. And I do think it impacts siblings specifically because there's that balance. You're already biding your time with all these children, you know, trying to give them their full attention. But when a child has a special need, it's like a triage, like they go to the top of the list, right? Working in a hospital, you know that. Anyone watches just the pit, we know that, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:26

We do know that. It's a triage, yeah. And it was it was interesting because so I have another child in Charlie. So Charlie is Graham's younger brother. Charlie has autism, so that was a whole nother layer of how to tell Charlie because his brain was wired a little bit different and and he processes different. So that was I wasn't quite ready for the questions that he had and how he responded. Um, his older sisters kind of took over the mama bear reign and just went to town. It was like a war, like a whole village came together and they helped the little ones and they helped me and they helped Graham. Um were very active in sorority life at that time. And so then we had all these sororities that that came to help.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

It's your your community, you find a community even if if it isn't there to begin with. And and sometimes it's people that you had no connection with before, or you didn't know. Sometimes I found people the closest to us had the hardest time because it scared them and they love your child like you do. Um, and and and it's a little hard for you know for them to deal with as well. As far as as keeping Graham, you were saying it, it really did impact his childhood, obviously. Um but yet he stayed in sports. Was he still the prom king as he progressed in school with his friends? I mean, how what can you do for someone looking at this? There's the schedule number one, which we'll talk about in a minute and how you coordinate with the school as far as medical treatments and all that, but let's just focus on dealing with their emotional sense and helping them maintain that childhood. We found one of the best things was, and our pediatrician recommended it from the beginning, was to get a therapist because he said young people will kind of shut down and not want to upset their parents. So they will keep a lot to themselves. And we found that to be just absolutely wonderful because, you know, if it was a bad day, the Claire could just say, I really want to talk to April. And okay, I'm calling her. And and it was like her go-to that she could just, you know, let everything out, and that really helped. What worked for you in helping him?

SPEAKER_00 10:51

So that was one thing we didn't do at the beginning. Um, eventually we got there, but we didn't get there at the beginning. It was more of a focus on day-to-day normalcy, whatever that looked like. And we had good days and we had bad days. There was a lot of missed school um looking back at even things like yearbooks, like how many picture days he missed when he's not at the yearbook, or how many um lacrosse games he missed, or how many activities, parties, et cetera. And so it was just trying to find a balance. And also in the back of my mind as a mom, I wanted to create memories in case it ended differently. Um, so we focused more on what do you want to do? What do you want to see? What are things that you want to do in your lifetime? And and it wasn't a bucket list thing, it was more of a you're healthy enough right now and you want to see the mountains. So guess what? We're gonna go today. Pull everybody out of school and we would go make those memories. And so we did find ourselves um in kind of a hybrid education situation with him. He did fall farther and farther and farther behind. But in my mind, that wasn't the forefront. And I didn't, I simply didn't care at the moment. Looking back now, I probably would do things different. But at the time, it was more about spending time with each other, making the memories we needed to make, and making sure that he was enjoying life in in some capacity.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Right, within that age. Um, what did you get a lot of support from school? Because I we were very blessed to have a school that was very engaged. And and for instance, um, when Claire had to do her immunotherapy on Sundays, she'd feel like she had the flu for the first few days. So if there was a test, um, the teachers would say, okay, she can come in and take it at lunch on Thursday, you know, when she would do better. So we kind of got into a routine with that. The greater challenge was that the drug therapies affected her short-term memory. But as you were saying, it's not, it's got, we know more that young people do get melanoma, but back when our kids were diagnosed, they kept saying it doesn't happen. Um, and so there was no correlation between uh learning limitation with these drug therapies. So we had to jump through hoops to get testing exemptions and those kinds of things. I mean, did you find that a course that was challenging to navigate as well?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

This the school was pretty good, um, not as good as you had. You had a great, wonderful experience and more of a partner. I did find some obstacles there. You know, we were in public school at the time. We had always traditionally all my children were Catholic school children. Um when I had my child with autism, there were more services in public, so we went public. There's rules they have to follow, and I understand that. Um, but as a human and a person and a mom, 12 absences in my mind is acceptable for a child fighting cancer.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

And that's just it, there's a different rule. There's different rules, a different understanding and different rule.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

And yeah, I know we we had a great partnership, but we did have to campaign for that.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

We did. I mean, I remember getting a letter in the mail that said that because he had missed it was a ridiculous amount, 36 days or something like that, um, that they were going to take us to if here in Minnesota, they take you to the parent to truancy court.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

I'm sorry. I'm not laughing, I'm aghast.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

And I laughed and I said, you know what, Grandpa, we're gonna go. We're gonna go and we're gonna tell the judge why we've been gone for 30 years.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Humiliate them, yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

And um, it's important that we do that.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

See, that's the mama there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

And so we never went back. We went to court and it it it ended exactly how you would assume it all ended. And the school district never bothered me again about this school. But you do have to kind of campaign, you have to be their voice.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

You you do, you have to stay on top of it. And that's one thing, again, for people to take away from this if they're facing it. A couple things, and I think we discussed this as well when we were talking before, is um advocacy, the mama bear aspect, papa bear, let's not neglect the dads, they're in there too. But but just the aspect of you have to be forward thinking and campaign. And when they say your child can't do this, you have to go, well, they can just in a different way. It's the same thing as a learning disability, as you know from Charlie. Um, and in anybody who has a challenge in any way, but also this was my experience with doctors, and I think I'm I'm blessed um as a journalist for years. I could go into what we call this news gene, where I could be very calm and collective. And when Claire would come out of surgery, I'd meet with going, okay, I've got my notebook. A B, I'm asking these questions very analytically. I'd have my meltdown later, lose my mind later, but in front of the doctors. And it was interesting. I had one physician tell me, he goes, I'm giving you my cell phone number just because I know A, you won't overuse it, and B, you won't call me in hysterics, you'll call me with a question. And I just thought, oh, that inadvertently I had done the right thing. But that's why I try to share with parents that if you can, number one, don't ever have a conversation with a doctor just by yourself, have a second set of ears, right? And just try to be as calm and try to do research ahead of time. Obviously, the virginal diagnosis, you're not going to be in that condition. But any other follow-up questions and and just be proactive. I mean, so how how does that correlate with what you learned and how you went through this with Graham?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Completely. And so I think the calm is important. Always having someone there is important. I didn't always have that, um, but I do believe that's important because you hear certain things that aren't what you want to hear, and then everything after kind of goes to the wayside. You don't always hear clearly. And I think that's important. I I learned along the way that especially in pediatrics, there's not one treatment plan. And I wish I would have asked that at the beginning. So, in my world, if a child comes into the hospital with pneumonia, here's the treatment plan. It's already standard work, it's best practice, it's this is what you do. You know, they get antibiotic, they get steroid, they get frequent suctioning, they get a chest x-ray every day. You have a standard procedure, but with pediatric melanoma, it was hospital specific. If they go to the mayo clinic here in Minnesota, it's the sitting duck plan. If you go to St. Jude, you might get on a clinical trial, you might be lucky enough. If you go to MD Anderson, way back then, it was interferon. So I think that that as a new parent coming in, you do have to do your research and you do have to ask the questions and kind of put that the emotion away. Um, I used to call them shower cries. I would put my mom face on and then I would cry in the shower. Um, I didn't, it didn't always work, but I would try really hard never to cry in front of him.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

So I would go on up to the shower, and my husband at the time, he would be like, I'll see you in two hours. You get yourself together and then you you present because he can't advocate for himself and he certainly doesn't know that there's different care plans and there's no standard of care and there's no best practice. But that was something I learned. And I had one physician at the male clinic say that he was a he was a resident at the time. And he said, Well, I just left a facility that the care plan would look much different. So you need to figure out what's best for you and your son. And I appreciated that. I appreciated someone saying that, not just, nope, this is the way, this is what you have to do.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

That you mentioned clinical trials and all of that, and and that's one thing that just it's a hot spot with me, and I'm sure with you as well, because only four percent of funding in research dollars go to kids' cancer, which is insane. Then more of the budget cuts than last year makes it makes my blood boil more. But what we ran into, and again, there's pediatrics, and then there's there's adolescence. And going with Graham through this, you've experienced both and into young adulthood. Claire started in adolescence. And so when they say, Oh, they're not 18 yet, it's like, well, she's 16 and she's 17. So her body is almost 100% their adults, much more so than I can understand you're not going to try it out on a two-year-old. And to just hit your head against the wall in this way. I mean, honestly, the trials that we were prohibited from, one was approved after towards the end when it was it too it worked for her, but it came in too late. But now our key truth and opdivia, the first line of defense for for melanoma. And and I mean, really seriously, I think that system cost us. And again, it was years ago, um, almost 12 years since we lost her. But at the same time, uh they need to get these trials in for kids. Um, what has been your experience going over these years with it? Were you able to try to get him on trials as he got closer into adulthood? Is it still something that he has to deal with now?

SPEAKER_00 20:28

So I have learned so much about clinical trials. And again, that's something new for a parent that hears my your child has cancer for the first time, or your young adult has cancer for the first time. I think some parents hear clinical trials and they think of mouse models or guinea pigs. They don't realize that these trials are vetted for success and not it's not a mystery. And that was one thing that I had to learn. But what I did learn really quickly is that any sort of pediatric exception, even compassionate exception, was just turned down. There were so few children in the country that had melanoma when Graham had melanoma that it was just, you know. Um, and that kind of became my my mission. So I go to Washington every year and and tell his story, request compassionate exception for anybody waiting. St. Jude is a little bit better because they're obviously a research hospital, but it's very hard to get in there. You almost have to know somebody to know somebody to make your way in, and that's challenging. But um it's a little bit different now. I think now they sometimes go by body weight instead of biologic age. And I think that will help a little bit. But again, he was he was little.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

He was little, and now some of the trials, and you know, we we're pro all of us together have worked toward this. That now they've lowered the age to 12 for some, which is fantastic. But again, Graham would have been. Close to 12, but not quite 12. I mean, that's where the aggravation comes in as your parent. You know, they always say, Well, it makes me crazy. And they'll say, Oh, it's rare. And I'm like, No, it's 100% if it strikes your child. Yeah, you know, that's not rare. Not go down that road. Um, you so he's diagnosed as a little one, nine, second grade, but then all of a sudden he's a teenager, and there's challenges in parenting teenagers and letting them find their own way and their own autonomy. And at the same time, you're still trying to navigate him down this medical course, and then into adulthood, and anybody who has an 18-year-old knows they may be legally adult, but boy, they are not anywhere near a full adult yet. Because what do they say? The front lobal area isn't fully developed till 28 or 29, right? Um, but legally you can't parent them, you know, without their permission. So, how as your child grows and progresses but still needs your support and your guidance, how do you manage that?

SPEAKER_00 23:07

So that has been probably a bigger challenge than telling him he has cancer at the age of nine because it's it's hard to watch and it's sad to watch. Graham has a lot of side effects from all of his surgical procedures. I think we stopped counting at 66 surgeries.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Surgeries, he's had 66 surgeries.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Yes, I think it could be more. I we quit at 60. Um, so when I tell you that his body looks like a little butcher shop, I mean it's it's bad. Um he has lots of issues with lymphedema. Simple things in high school could have helped, like compression stockings, but there is no 16-year-old boy on this planet that is gonna wear compression stockings to school, no matter how cool we made them. You know, we he kind of bonded with the Duke basketball team, and even the Duke basketball team had some fancy Duke um compression socks made for him.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Oh, that's so great.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

He still wouldn't wear them. Um mom, they make fun of me. Mom, he would rather come home with you know not being able to walk and going immediately into the opioids because that was the only thing that took his pain away, because kids are mean. And so we we struggled with that a lot in high school. Um, he was always an athlete, and that was really hard to watch. He played hockey in lacrosse and basketball, and as he got a little bit older and a little bit weaker, um, I specifically remember lacrosse, all the kids would be lined up on the field and all the moms would be taking pictures of all the numbers of the jerseys, and he would have to sit because he couldn't stand, and it was really hard. Um and he knew too, you know, he would come home and just cry. Um so that piece of trying to parent into young adulthood was challenging. Um, and as he got older, he did ask more questions. Um I remember one time he came upstairs and he said, I know I waited too long, but he said, I have the biggest swollen cyst on my head, and I'm so scared to show you.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

And your heart just stops because you're worried too.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Yep. And so there were things like that that he, you know, or he would say, I'm just ready, I don't want to do this anymore. And then when they turn adult, they allow children to have access to the medical records. When he speaking, he was 12. Actually, he could have access to his medical. Is that Minnesota or else? So as a parent, they cut your access off at the age of 12.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Wait, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Seriously, you can get access if your child allows you to, which of course he did, but at the age of 12 in Minnesota, they have access to their medical records. And so he said, Well, now that I have access to my medical records, and it might have been a little bit later when he asked the question, it might have been 15. He said, I I don't want to do this anymore, mom. I don't I don't want to fight. I don't want to, I'm tired, I hurt every day. I'm living on ibuprofen and pain meds, I can't function, I miss school. Um, so that was more of a challenge than telling him he had laminola at the age of eight.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

It is the question of of when, you know, because he has survived. Claire had a stage three, you know, it all depends on circumstances and genetics. And obviously at nine, he wasn't like a sun god and going to channing booth. So there's like that's the whole point in childhood. They don't get squama cell and basal cell, they get melanoma, and there's other factors, which is what we talk about. But you survive, but then it is, it's like you know, Hiroshima on your body, and there's an inner strength and an ability to go forward. So so now that he's 22, is he is he looking if you can speak for him, but it is he looking forward? Is he um is just trying to keep up with it every day? What's his stats?

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Um, so he's NED, which obviously is no evidence of disease, which is fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

That means it's not there.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Not there. Um, the side effects are still there.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

So he still has significant lymphedema issues, lots of pain issues, he's got some mental health issues. Um he still lives at home, which I like. Yeah, I'm sure. I have stopped, I have stopped going into his bedroom with the flashlight to do those surprise skin checks because it's not too bad anymore. Um, but I like having him there. I like making sure he's okay and making sure that um what what can I do to support you? And it's not a ton anymore. He's finding his way, he he loves photography. That's kind of his creative outlet, um, outlet. He needs a lucky break because he can't work full-time because he hurts.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Um, and not everyone understands that. So he's currently doing side photography jobs and um helping me do whatever I need him to do. He's a great, great, great guy. He has a girlfriend, he's got a cat. So he's good. Um, anxious about anything new that shows up on his body. He is still anxious about any sort of swollen lymph nodes from normal infections, right? Anything like that. And he's self-conscious about all the holes in his body. He's got um uh hole in his leg. And when I tell you hole, it's you could put a ping pong ball in it and it would be flush because of an infection that he got from one of his many procedures. And so he's very self-conscious about how that looks. He's not so worried about the scars um from the melanoma, but all of the little aftermath, if he calls it aftermath.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Right. Well, with 66 assumed uh surgeries, it's it's a huge impact. And and and you don't come out of this unscathed. Like I always try to encourage everyone who's a young person and hitting challenges of any form, it's like, look, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon, you know, and you know, you take your hits early, and then hopefully the road smooths out and it's a little easier going, you know, as as you go. Because so, so if there was my my one last question for you is if out of all we've discussed and you've shared, if there was one thing, if if a parent who has a newly diagnosed child calls you and saying, What's the one thing I need to know above all else? What would that be?

SPEAKER_00 29:57

I get a lot of calls, actually. It's it's ironic how we find each other. It's this whole melanoma community. We just find each other. So when a new family calls or a new, it's usually a mother, but not always. I've had fathers call as well. I always um tell them to do their homework. And you're not second guessing your physician. You're not going to hurt their feelings, but you're the only one that can be that person to say, I'm gonna take them to two or three more places to make sure that we know what the care plan is. Um, be an advocate. Um, you said it beautifully. I'm gonna add what your words to my knowledge bank, but the importance of being calm. It's a storm, and they don't need their mom and dad and their guardians and their family members to be in that whirlwind. They need us to be the calm.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

So all of the knowledge you can get. There's never a stupid question. And um reach out to your village. There's a lot of us out there that'll help. We have mentors and we have um liaisons and coordinators and people that all volunteer to help new families. So know your resources.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

And and just as you said, just I guess you have to just from my perspective, is there's never a guarantee in parenting. Um, obviously, with all your children, you've seen, whoa, like you said, you thought you hit everything coming down the road ahead of time, right? Um, and and that's the challenge and that's the blessing. And um there's just you've you've got to try to trust yourself and just I looked at as what they call the lily pad experience, going through diagnosis, like, okay, we're gonna sit here and hold still and hold steady until something new comes along, and and then we'll jump to that and um pivot, right? It's like the big word pivot in life. But Cheryl, thank you so much. I just I appreciate you sharing, you know, from the heart. And um, you're gonna help a lot of families by sharing your story and Graham. And please give Graham my best, you know. I'd love to see some of his photography. Such a great passion. Good for him. You know, get get that going on Etsy, sell some of those shots.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

I agree, you know, absolutely. And thank you again. And we just want to tell everybody if you um would like to find out some more ideas and some of the specifics we talked about, you can just go to our most recent blog on our website, ClaremarieFoundation.org. And then just of course, a quick word of thanks, but most appreciative to Children's Cancer Foundation and also Castle Biosciences, who support this podcast and our mission at large. None of this could be done without their help. Okay, just gonna call it a day now. Um, just please remember from all of this life is a gift. Every day is to be celebrated. And go out and live life like Claire. Until next time, enjoy your day. Thank you.