BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — There is a special effort to lift the spirits of people who are battling cancer here in Western New York.
7 News' Pheben Kassahun had the chance to witness part of a special giveaway at Roswell Park firsthand and hear from the folks behind it all.
Spending the holidays in a hospital room is not what 134 Roswell Park patients had in mind this year but in the hopes of making their holidays brighter, the Jacquie Hirsch for A.L.L. Foundation put a little spin on things Thursday night.
Jacquie Hirsch for A.L.L. Foundation executive director Sharon Hirsch told Pheben Kassahun, "Patients will be treated to a song and a dance by our biggest sponsor group which is Dancers Give Back. The girls will go in and present the gift cards to the patients."
Thanks to Target and Wegman's, they are getting $400 in gift cards.
7 News was not able to come along for the distribution due to HIPAA laws.
It is all in the name of 23-year-old Jacquie Hirsch, who passed away from acute lymphocytic leukemia in September 2008.
For the last eight years, this annual giveaway has been put on by her parents Torey and Sharon Hirsch and brother.
"My patients who unfortunately have to be here for days or weeks of therapy and are missing the holidays, have the opportunity to get something that they can use to buy gifts for their families when they're not there," Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Leukemia Service Chief Dr. Eunice Wang shared.
Doctor Wang was Jacquie's doctor.
"We immediately made arrangements for her to be transferred here. She came over and arrived at 2 in the morning with her parents and brother in toe, and I met them here at Roswell Park," she explained.
During her cancer fight, she went into remission and received two bone marrow transplants, but unfortunately died within a year of her diagnosis.
Doctor Wang said, "I would encourage everybody to get involved and to think about this. Jacquie's life is reflectant in all the giving that we give. Every year, I think about her and how she could have actually been here now with the therapies that we now have for leukemia."
Jacquie Hirsch for A.L.L. Foundation was originally started to help with her expenses.
It now helps other patients with their expenses in more ways than one.
"We hope she would say she is proud of what we have done in her memory. We hope that she would know that we are doing this because she asked us to try to help other patients and families and try to help find a cure, so I think she would tell us to keep going and not quit because she never quit," Hirsch shared, "Jacquie was the bright star in every sky. She was vibrant, loving and caring, considerate. She was going to be a kindergarten teacher. She had just finished her second to last year of school and was heading to her student teaching."
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