ASK Expands Family Support Services with Donation from Marshall and Dennis Lynch

The Lynch Family: Dennis, Marshall, Eleanor and Coley.

ASK Childhood Cancer Foundation, Central Virginia’s leading and most comprehensive provider of emotional, financial and educational support to children with cancer and their families, has received a generous gift from Marshall and Dennis Lynch.  These funds will be used to develop and expand programs providing direct assistance and guided care for families struggling with a pediatric cancer diagnosis.

Families caring for a child with cancer face extraordinary stress, an experience all too familiar for the Lynch family.  Dennis and Marshall’s daughter, Eleanor, is currently undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

At the time of diagnosis, 16 year old Eleanor was a sophomore at St. Catherine’s School. She played in a soccer game one afternoon and then woke up that night with a mild fever and sore knee. Marshall describes the days that followed: “We thought she was just run down, and that the fever and the knee pain were likely unrelated.  Then we thought maybe she had Lyme’s disease or something like it.  We took her to her primary care doctor, but didn’t get the blood test results right away. By that evening, Eleanor’s pain had escalated. We knew something wasn’t right and rushed her to the emergency room.”  Doctors discovered the pain was coming from the bone marrow in Eleanor’s knee that had become crowded with cancer cells. That’s when the family received the news that Eleanor had leukemia. Their world turned upside down as Eleanor began chemotherapy two days later.
 
The first year of treatment was extremely difficult. Between countless spinal taps, IV chemo treatments, side effects, and constant neutropenia, Eleanor spent many nights in the hospital. As a stay-at-home mom living relatively close to VCU, Marshall was able to focus on her daughter’s care while still taking care of their son, Coley.  Even so, it was not easy, and she often wondered – "how do families with two working parents, or a single parent, or who live further away handle this?"
 
Caregivers of a child with cancer often find themselves unable to leave their child's room or bedside for things as basic as eating a meal, doing laundry, having a private conversation with clinicians, or just taking a mental break. That’s where the Lynches saw a need for expanding dedicated respite care, which was a program goal that recently had been identified by ASK.  “Hospital stays are exhausting. Leaving your child alone is often not a viable option. Having respite support available is incredibly helpful,” said Marshall.
 
In September 2018, ASK utilized the Lynch family’s gift to hire a Family Support Coordinator – a new staff position aimed at providing more support to families with a child in treatment. The position is dedicated to helping families manage stress, improve quality of life, increase quality time with siblings and improve their overall well-being.
 
In addition to providing in-patient respite services, the family support coordinator gets to know each family and is able to personalize her efforts. From assisting parents and caregivers with organizing all of the paperwork, appointments and medications, to sending personalized care packages with gas and grocery gift cards, or planning events just for siblings; she ensures the entire family unit is supported.
 
Marshall notes, “No one is ready for this diagnosis. No one has an education in caring for your child with cancer. You don’t know what you don’t know. If I needed this type of support, I know that other parents do, too.”