Taking a stroll for The Tomorrow Fund

The Tomorrow Fund, the only local non-profit organization that helps children with cancer, held its 15th Annual Stroll on Sunday, in Garden City. The Stroll, which began at 10 a.m., was organized by a committee of volunteers and parents of local children with cancer.

Approximately 2,000 people of all ages hit the pavement on a cool and clear day to come together as a united front and raise funds for The Tomorrow Fund. This event serves as one of two large fundraisers for the organization. The Stroll enables families to connect socially within and beyond the clinic setting and has engaged the patient families’ need to “give back” to The Tomorrow Fund.

The Tomorrow Fund is the only local non- profit organization that provides daily financial and emotional support to children with cancer and their families who are treated in The Tomorrow Fund Clinic located in the Edwin Forman Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. From the time of diagnosis throughout the entire course of treatment, The Tomorrow Fund is there providing daily monetary stipends for in-patient families; hospital parking passes for the duration of treatment; financial aid for home expenses such as heat, utilities, and rent; bone marrow transplant expenses, etc.

In addition to financial aid, they fund programs that help lift the burden of parenting a child with cancer including coping, teen and bereavement support groups, parent consultants, community education and medical research.

Of the children and teenagers who develop cancer in RI and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut, over 90% are treated in The Tomorrow Fund Clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. For more information, please call The Tomorrow Fund at 401-444-8811. (Herald photos by Steve Popiel)