Mattie Miracle wants to build awareness of childhood cancer in the general public, in our lawmakers who determine where the hundreds of billions of dollars go each year, and in the medical profession, such as doctors, nurses, or technicians, who have direct contact with children who have cancer. Cancer is a devastating disease for a young and innocent child, and it is heart breaking and challenging at times for a family and community to know how best to support a child through this journey. When childhood cancer strikes a child, the best medical care we can offer children is going to entail months and in many cases years of intense treatment and pain. The aftermath of such treatments can leave children with intense disappointment, sadness, and in some cases secondary cancers, and death. Although some children are lucky enough to survive this ordeal, they are left with a lifetime of impairments and complications such as the mental and emotional trauma of having faced and survived cancer. Mattie Miracle intends to make a difference. We will reach as many children as we can and commit and dedicate ourselves to the vision of a world that has access to a minimum level of psychosocial support from the time of diagnosis, through survivorship, or end of life and bereavement care. A world in which children and their families do not have to spend their days without the psychological, emotional, and social support that is vitally necessary to navigate through the day to day cancer journey. Mattie Miracle seeks to attack the psychosocial issues associated with childhood cancer head on, and we will not stop until we have made these issues a priority alongside the medical care of the disease. Using awareness campaigns and education, support services, coordinated care and research, we believe we will make a difference, and help children and their families manage and cope with childhood cancer so that they not only live to tell the tales of how they beat cancer, but that they are able to do this with dignity and with a high quality of life.
