WASHINGTON — A family-run organization is giving back this holiday season to those traveling a path they know all too well: the fight against pediatric cancer.
“We not only bring toys at Christmastime, but we do help families throughout the year with expenses, whether it be utilities, or their rent or mortgage, or times like this. If you can’t get gifts for your kids for Christmas, we’ll help with that — whatever we can do to help,” said Brandi Garrett of the Maddy Wagon, whose daughter, Madison, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2012.
At the fifth annual Christmas Maddy Wagons of H.O.P.E. — Happiness, Optimism, Peace and Excitement — a collection of wagons stocked with toys and a couch full of comfy blankets decked The Ronald McDonald Family Room at Children’s National Health System in Northwest D.C. on the Friday before Christmas.
Madison has been in remission nearly four years now, but Garrett said when she, her husband Edwin and the entire family were in the throes of her daughter’s cancer battle, she could not imagine at the time that they’d be conducting an annual toy giveaway.
Although Garrett said “it’s like becoming a member of a club you never wanted to be a part of,” a major thread in their mission is showing other parents and families that they’re not alone in this fight — and there is hope.
“Regardless of what it looks like from day to day, or regardless of what statistics are thrown at you or what numbers are thrown at you, you just really have to hold on to that faith, that thing that you can’t see because what you see in front of you seems pretty bleak.”
Garrett said even though Madison is no longer battling cancer, she and her family are still in the fight to help other families and join other organizations in trips to Capitol Hill to advocate for more funding for pediatric cancer research.
