Chicago Based Children's Cancer Camp Participates In Giving Tuesday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- When Colleen McGrath was 13, she was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
"Eight months earlier, I lost my mom to cancer," McGrath said. "I didn't care what the hospital, what my doctor said, I thought it was a death sentence."
McGrath was ready to give up until her doctors made her a deal. WBBM's Lisa Fielding reports.
"I wanted to quit chemo and let myself pass away," she recalls. "But my doctors said if I agreed to try this camp for children with cancer on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, I just had to give that a try and then they would sign off on whatever decision I wanted to make."
McGrath attended Children's Oncology Services One Step Camp that summer.
"I went kicking and screaming but within hours into it, my life was changed forever," she said. "I saw cancer survivors for the first time, I saw kids with challenges I never was going to have to face, enjoying their lives, adapting their life and becoming normal kids again. It was the first time I really been given hope that I was able to see the other side of what my diagnosis would look like. I went home and was able to finish treatment because of that place and I'm alive today."
Now, 31-years old, she not only survived her first bout of cancer, but she works for the organization.
"Everything good in my life I attribute to One Step and we're excited to be participating in Giving Tuesday," McGrath said. "It is a global day of giving back."
Launched in 2012, Giving Tuesday falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It's about shifting from receiving gifts to giving to charity.
Since 1978, more than 13,500 campers have attended One Step.
"We were the dream of a pediatric oncologist in Chicago back when it was Children's Hospital," McGrath said. "He had a handful of cancer patients and volunteers on Lake Geneva to kick off our summer camp and we've been growing every since."
One Step hopes to raise $90,000 during the holiday season, which will send 90 more kids to camp in 2017.
"Every $1,000 we raise, it sends a child with cancer to camp for a week, which is huge," she said.
From #GivingTuesday, Nov. 29th, through the end of the year, anyone who donates to Children's Oncology Services, Inc. can qualify to have their gift matched by The Ellen Marks Cancer Foundation.
The Ellen Marks Cancer Foundation will match gifts received through this holiday appeal, dollar for dollar, up to the first $25,000 raised in support of One Step Programs serving children who have been diagnosed with cancer.
"I get to see a lot of kids who are scared and their lives have been turned upside down," McGrath said. "To all the sudden be bald, or be sick and all these challenges. All of our campers look at camp as a second family. We go to camp with this ability to just check out of the hospital, just to have fun and to have typical childhood experiences that are stripped with the diagnosis with cancer. Throughout, they gain this support system. They have this full army behind them that they can rely on and count on who've been in their shoes."
Children's Oncology Services Inc. now offers 11 One Step Programs throughout the year, developed for both children and teens, ages 5-19, and a few speciality camps that serve their parents and siblings as well.
For more information, please visit www.onestepcamp.org or find them on social media, https://www.facebook.com/OneStepCamp #OneStepCamp
