Fourth Annual Benjamin Felder Aflac Cancer Center Toy Drive

Happy December Everybody!

My name is Joey Felder, and I am a fourth-year medical student at Emory University's School of Medicine here with a fundraiser to buy Christmas gifts for the children in the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

The Aflac Cancer Center has always had a special place in my heart. On February 10th, 2004, physicians discovered a tumor in my younger brother Benjamin's liver, approximately the size of a golf ball. He had been formally diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma - a rare form of childhood cancer. From that moment forward, the Aflac Cancer Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta became a second home to my family. After numerous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, many nights of my family sleeping at the hospital, and trials that no child should ever be faced with, he had finally gone into remission. New scans showed no visible cancer left, but unfortunately, we were blessed with that gift for only about a year. On a follow-up visit, Ben had some scans performed, showing new evidence that his cancer had returned. From then on, we were only given one more month with him until, on April 27th, 2006, my brother passed away from his cancer. Although his cancer had taken his life, it didn't touch the impact Ben left on everybody who knew him.

Today marks the beginning of the fourth annual Benjamin Felder Aflac Cancer Center Toy Drive in my brother's remembrance, and to everyone who has donated to this cause in prior years - you already know there is nothing more fulfilling than bringing happiness to children at some of the most difficult portions of their lives. As I am currently in my final year of medical school and will soon be a Pediatrics resident, I want to be honest and say this may be the last collection for some years as I will possibly be out of Georgia training to become the physician I've hoped to become. With that said, I would like to leave our children in the unit with as much as possible! I would love to summarize the impact you have already made in the lives of the children we serve over the past three years. In our first year, we donated approximately $600 worth of items to the kids in the unit. In our second year, we donated an extraordinary $3,437 worth of items! And finally, last year we reached an astounding $4,070! I am still blown away by the impact we were able to make last year and the growth we saw over these few years. It truly shows the impact a loving community can make when rallying for a cause we all find so important. I pray we can make a similar impact on the children this year. This year, we will start at a goal of $1,893 (to reach an incredible $10,000 collectively over the few years we've done this) and we will continue increasing it as necessary!

As someone who spent a large portion of time in the hospital with my brother, I know the impact that books, games, and other toys can have on the children in the hospital. Kids faced with cancer are often stripped of their childhood, being forced to grow up much earlier than they should have to. The toys not only act as a distraction for many of the kids when undergoing complex procedures, but they also restore the inner child that each patient in the Aflac Cancer Center truly deserves to be. One of my favorite memories of my brother is him riding around the unit on his BigWheel tricycle; this allowed him to escape from the reality of the unit and restore the childhood he deserved.

If you have the means to contribute, I hope the children at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta are something you would like to donate to. 100% of all donations will go directly towards Christmas items for the children in the unit. Please share this so we can hopefully make our biggest impact to date!

If you would like to contact me for any reason, please feel free to contact me!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

From Ben's brother,

Joey