#BetterTogether: Valerie Fund Walk & 5k Run steps off Saturday in Verona, N.J.
VERONA, N.J. -- The Valerie Fund Walk and 5k Run was held Saturday in Verona, New Jersey.
For 46 years, the organization has been helping children battling cancer and blood disorders. Their primary mission is to help families get life-saving care close to home at eight centers in New York and New Jersey.
The event is group's biggest fundraiser, and the goal is to raise $1 million to help bring children comprehensive care from medical to emotional wellbeing.
"The Valerie Fund saved my son's life!"
"You can't cure someone just medically. You have to look at the whole child and you have to look at the whole family, and that's what the Valerie Fund enables us to do," said Maureen Baker, a nurse practitioner at Goryeb Children's Hospital.
Samantha Gogerty, whose son has leukemia, says it's hard to explain how important the Valerie Fund is to her and her family.
"Because aside from treating him medically, they make sure everything from emotional, socially, developmentally, I mean, they care for us as a whole family," she said.
Meet Team Trey
"From day one, they treated Trey like he's one of their sons and make sure every stay here is positive, every stay here is caring," Rob Gogerty said.
"We've been coming to the Valerie Center since Adriana was 3 weeks old, which is over five years ago," said Kristen Amado, whose daughter has Thalassemia Major disease. "They make sure that she's comfortable, that she's happy and that she has some things to be excited about even when it's a little bit of a tough day."
Sophie's Sweet Soldiers
"All diseases are bio-psycho-social illnesses, so in addition to treating the medical component, it's so crucial to treat the emotional wellbeing of the child, the nutritional wellbeing, the mental health component, as well," said Chelsea Caravella, a pediatric oncology dietician with Goryeb Children's Hospital.
Latisha Parsons, whose daughter has a Wilms' tumor, says people don't understand the stress of having a child with cancer.
Meet the Valerie Fund's founders
"Just everything, the totality of everything. It's not just coming to the hospital, it's a lot of other things that add to the whole experience," she said.
"What I find is having care close to home really makes a huge difference for their ability to be able to be supported by their family, by their friends and by their community," said Dr. Melinda Fritz, a pediatric oncologist at Goryeb Children's Hospital. "We have an over 80% cure rate for all children with cancer, so we know that we're not just treating the cancer, we are looking at their long-term. We are looking at their life. We are looking at how they can grow and still be kids because cancer is part of them, but it's not who they are."
The Learning Experience
"I think I can speak for our entire team here that it's a privilege to be with these kids and these families on a small part of their journey," Caravella said.
CBS2 is a proud partner under our #BetterTogether campaign, and our own John Elliott and Vanessa Murdock were the emcees.
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