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During and after Jenna's two year struggle with a brain tumor, the Kamil family experienced an outpouring of community support. As an outgrowth of this caring, Jenna's Rainbow Foundation was formed. Friends and family have sustained the level of fundraising over the years to help families in crisis. We are grateful that JRF can assist such families and provide supplemental assistance to fill the void other pediatric brain and spinal cord tumor foundations are unable to address.
The following are examples of how JRF donations are helping those in need. Privacy of all individuals has been maintained.
In the fall of 2003 Jenna's Rainbow Foundation was asked by Beth Israel North to provide aid for a family with a 5 year old boy with an inoperable brain tumor. The only way the child could leave the hospital and be attended to at home was if JRF funded homecare. Help was particularly essential in this situation because the child's father had died of cancer several months before and there were two healthy siblings at home as well. Everyone who donated time and money to JRF helped this child spend the remainder of his life at home with his family. A last wish was met and an unbearable journey, in some respects, eased.
JRF assisted a family who required childcare for two children at home while their toddler was undergoing months-long intensive treatments for an otherwise fatal tumor at Tomorrow's Children at Hackensack Hospital in Hackensack, New Jersey. At the Spring Fair in May, the family came by to express their appreciation to JRF for the generous funds provided during their crisis.
JRF received a request to help a high school boy who over the years has been affected by several brain tumors. As a result of these recurrences, he is quadriplegic and requires round-the-clock nursing care. Only 50% of homecare is paid for by the government and there is no health insurance available to help cover a child receiving this level of nursing care at home. JRF has been able to supplement the cost and meet the challenges of shrinking insurance coverage. Our assistance allows this young man to live at home with his loving family, continue to go to school and be an inspiration to all who know him.
We at Jenna's Rainbow Foundation feel blessed to work with supporters and friends in the community who play a role in helping families in profound need. On behalf of these families, we thank you for continuing to make the world a better place for children with spinal cord tumors.
