Emilio was diagnosed as a child with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). ALL has a 75% survival rate, so while the Nares family was both devastated and facing desparation, they were still hopeful that this 75% would include their son. Emilio soon relapsed and underwent intensive chemotherapy while the marrow donor registry was scoured. He was ultimately (long-term) not responsive to the chemotherapy treatment, and a bone marrow transplant was the only other option.
Emilio had no siblings, meaning that the bone marrow donor needed to come from someone outside the family. They frantically searched the registry of marrow donors; it was not until two months later that they realized each person that was thoroughly searched would cost $800. The community outpoured support, but unfortunately this match was never found.
Two years after losing their son, the Nares family began the Emilio Nares Foundation in his honor to help support families going through similar situations. The Foundation now has many programs, funded completely by donations and fundraisers, that allow for the family to help others every chance they get.
The Emilio Nares Foundation states on their website, "Many people are not aware that in our country 10,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year. Two out of every eight children will relapse. This means that chemotherapy will not work for them in the long term."
The Foundation's aim is to be a resource for families as well as a support system. They have created the following programs to help others who have been forced to endure similar tragedy:
Ride with Emilio
Ride with Emilio is a transportation service that helps underprivileged families make sure their child has a ride to their critical medical appointments. This program was started after the foundation realized how many children either miss their appointments or take excessively long (around 4 hour) bus rides to and from each appointment. To solve this problem, they bought a van (and have since expanded to two). Each van takes 10-20 families a week (5 or 6 children a day) to their appointments for free.
Loving Tabs T-Shirts
Children receiving extensive treatments often need to completely lift their shirts to give doctors access to the connected tubes. The Loving Tabs T-Shirts have snaps down the chest to easily expose the tubes without the need to completely undress, giving children the sense of normalcy they deserve in this trying time. They are designed to be softer than cotton and sterile/sanitary.
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| Photo from the Emilios Nares Foundation website |
Patient Advocacy Program
This program was created as a resource to non-English speaking families, to give them assitance for important things like understanding diagnosis and treatment information. This service extends into other fields of medicine and is dedicated to empowering parents.
The foundation has created several other programs, for more information on the programs, check out their website.
For photos of Emilio, check out the Emilio Nares Foundation Flickr account. (This will open a new window).
How you can Help
1. Make a Donation, Fundraise or Volunteer! (Sign up for any of the 3 here)
2. Join our Golf Tournament Efforts - Source Healthcare Staffing is paricipating in a Golf Tournament in San Diego that raises money for the ENF.
3. Richard Runs California - Run with him!
Have any questions, comments or concerns? Feel free to leave them in the comments below!
All information and pictures found in this post were found on the ENF website.
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