VERONA, N.J. (WCBS 880) — Since 1976, the Valerie Fund has helped provide comfort and healing for thousands of New Jersey children stricken with cancer and blood disorders close to their Garden State homes.
Once again this year, on Saturday, September 25th, the fund is holding its annual fundraising walk and 5K run in Verona Park.
Ahead of the event, WCBS 880's John Metaxas spoke with three people involved with fund about the organization's important work.
LUISA BAKER
Metaxas first spoke with a mother from Union County who is grateful for the support her family has received from the Valerie Fund.
Luisa Batista is a mother of not one, but two children stricken with sickle cell anemia. Tthe blood disorder first diagnosed in her son, Roderick, when he was born 11 years ago and then in her daughter, Leah, who is now five.
Her middle child, 9-year-old Liana, has the trait, but not the disease.
Sickle cell becomes evident during crisis periods when patients have to be hospitalized, but Batista said those ordeals became manageable because of the care they got from doctors, nurses and staff supported by the Valerie Fund at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
"I feel so blessed because they showed me that I wasn't alone in that difficult time," Batista said.
There is no cure for sickle cell, but now with treatment, Roderick and Leah's illnesses have become manageable.
Batista said she'll always be grateful to the Valerie fund.
"I ask God to bless all of them because it's not just my family, it is a lot of families that they're helping," she said.
MAUREEN BAKER
Maureen Baker has been an advanced practice nurse at Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center for more than 33 years. For all that time, she has worked closely with the doctors, care specialists and the Valerie Fund to help child cancer and blood disorder patients get through their illnesses.
As a specialist in pediatric hematology and oncology, she is well-versed in understanding and treating the side effects of chemotherapy.
But she told Metaxas there is much more to her work.
"Children are not mini-adults they're very, very different," Baker said. "Just the whole growth and development that occurs with children, you know, you're not just treating the cancer in a 50 or 60 year old, you're treating a child who is maturing."
"Our goal is to cure, but not just curing physically, but curing all around," Baker added. "We have a nurse psychologist here three days a week, we have a dietitian here three days a week."
She also makes herself available to her patients outside of the hospital.
"One of our patients is going off to college and he's 18 and I said to him tonight before he left, 'You don't have to call your mom to call me if you have a problem while you're at school,'" Baker said. "We see some patients in their 30s to 40s who were treated as children that still come back for their annual long-term follow up and a lot of those services are supported by the Valerie Fund. Getting people to support the Valerie Fund in general helps all of us — it helps our patients and that's really the goal is to help our patients."
She said her patients have taught her important lessons throughout the years.
"They taught me so much they taught me how to be brave. How to laugh even when things aren't so great," Baker said.
CONNOR MCDERMID
Metaxas also spoke with 17-year-old Randolph resident Connor McDermid, who is recovering from Leukemia, and will be at the walk.
After nearly a year battling leukemia, McDermid says he now sees light at the end of the tunnel and feels so much better since being home.
McDermid said he's grateful for the support he's gotten from the Valerie Fund in his treatments at Morristown Medical Center.
"Valerie Fund's been amazing in support. The nurses are always very friendly, the doctors of course help to reassure us," he said.
The teen's mother, Erin, said that support extended to the entire family, including therapy to better understand the scope of his treatments.
"It's a thing the whole family goes through and they're so focused on making sure the whole family is okay," she said.
McDermid will be speaking at this week's Valerie Fund Walk and hopes to inspire others with his story of recovery.
"I want to be part of a way to give back to the Valerie Gund and all that it's done to help me and my family," he said.
Connor wants to attend college in his native Canada and study Computer Science. He'll be attending community college at the County College of Morris this fall, while he applies to colleges.