Andy and Jessica Miller learned their daughter Karsyn had Leukemia when she was only 3 years old. To cope with the diagnosis, the Millers leaned heavily on their CaringBridge community to get them through her two-and-a-half-year journey.
Their personal CaringBridge site gave them a place to thank all those who helped them during Karsyn’s journey. As Jessica wrote on their site within the first few hours of Karsyn’s diagnosis, “Every time we feel overwhelmed we read this site and are reassured and rejuvenated by the knowledge that we have all of you good and kind people to lean on.”
giving back in appreciation
Karsyn has been in remission for more than a year now. To show the family’s appreciation for the organizations and people who made Karsyn’s health journey easier, Andy, Jessica and their long-time friends created an organization called Karsyn’s Krusaders to raise money and awareness of cancer, especially children’s cancer, with tools like a children's cancer blog.
Karsyn’s Krusaders sells merchandise at local car racing events – a favorite pastime of the Miller family – and donates proceeds to organizations that support people facing a health event. After a very successful fundraiser, the Millers wanted one of their first gifts to be to CaringBridge because it had helped their family so much during Karsyn’s journey.
helping many more families
The Millers knew what it was like to coordinate care while Karsyn was in and out of the hospital, and wanted other families to have a simple way to meet these needs. They loved the idea of directing their gift toward funding a new service, the CaringBridge SupportPlanner. “Our gift to CaringBridge was one of our most exciting donations because we know the impact,” she said. “We know this service will go on forever and help so many more families.”
This gift from Karsyn’s Krusaders was the first donation to make the creation and implementation of the SupportPlanner possible. Because of their generosity, families all around the world will benefit from this online calendar resource and be able to coordinate care and invite their communities to help them throughout their loved one’s health journey, whether it's children's cancer support or another worthy goal.
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related information
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