Gabe's My Heart

When I started contacting people in Nashville, the director of Gild's Club, a cancer support group, told me about Lu Sips and her son Gabe. In 2002, Gabe was the first baby born in Nashville, and since that time, his life has had an incredible impact on other childhood cancer patients at Vanderbilt Children's. Just after his first birthday, he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma and had to undergo chemotheropy. During his treatment, his mother Lu took one of his favorite stuffed animals and created a wonderful teaching tool: "chemo-duck." She gave the duck a bandana, an IV port, and a pair of hosptial scrubs. Soon other families at the hospital started asking Lu about "chemo-duck", and she started making them for other children going through treatment. Within a few months, the demand was so high that Lu decided to start a non-profit called Gabe's My Heart dedicated to provided this teaching tool for parents and children going through cancer treatment. When one little boy at Vanderbilt recieved his, he gave it a big hug and said, "Look mom, he's sick like me!"


I met Lu and Gabe a few weeks ago, and we are planning on meeting again this Friday to discuss ways that we can team up this summer. Currently "chemo-ducks" are only available in a few hospitals, and we think that it would be great to donate a few "chemo-ducks" to each hospital that we visit this summer.

~ Austin

To read more about Gabe's story, click here