It can be hard to have a Merry Christmas when your child is sick in the hospital.
In addition to the worry, sleeplessness, lack of time, and occasional lack of money, Christmas can feel like one more thing adding to your stress.
Some parents find they can not even leave the hospital to buy gifts. Two organizations in Windsor hope to make this Christmas easier.
Little Hands Kids for a Cause started their drive on November 17, the anniversary of the death of Maisyn Spencer. The inspiration for the annual campaign died in 2014 of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He was eight.
Fight Like Mason is collecting new, unwrapped toys until December 8. Mason Bacon-Macri died at the age of four in June 2016.
That drive, partnered with Super Ethan's Steps, will collect toys for families who have children receiving treatment for cancer.
A photo of drop off sites for Fight Like Mason and Super Ethan's Steps toy drive. (Photo courtesy of Fight Like Mason)
Both toy drives have collection spots across Windsor and Essex County.
Toys collected for Little Hands Kids for a Cause will collect toys for distribution at Ronald McDonald Houses in London and Windsor Regional Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario in London. The hospital also holds a toy drive each year for its Gifts in Kind program. It provides donated gifts at a make-shift shop for parents who can not leave their child's bedside. This year, it will hold it's Toy Drive Open House on December 15.
For many parents, like Christie Merlo, these organizations have provided a support network outside of family and friends who may not fully understand the magnitude of what they are experiencing. Merlo's daughter, Hailey May, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocystic Leukemia last summer and spend 35 days in the hospital in London.
"When we got out of the hospital, Fight Like Mason had this photoshoot," said Merlo. "She was able to go to St. Clair College and feel like a little model. They bought her beautiful dresses and dressed her up like a unicorn princess."
Hailey May is one of the children featured in Fight Like Mason's 2020 calendar.
A photo of drop off sites for Fight Like Mason and Super Ethan's Steps toy drive. (Photo courtesy of Fight Like Mason)
Instead of starting junior kindergarten like her peers, the four-year-old is undergoing chemotherapy. She had a treatment in London this past week. Merlo has received help from Fight Like Mason in the past and decided to pay it forward by helping with the Little Hands Kids for a Cause toy drive.
"It's physically and emotionally draining," said Merlo of her own experience. "Then I have these people who have had this experience, and they want to give back."
The business that her family owns, Merlo Paints on Provincial Road, is one of 50 collection sites for Little Hands Kids for a Cause's drive.
A complete list of drop off points is on their Facebook Page.
