Mattie Miracle Walk 2023 was a $131,249 success!

Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation Promotional Video

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to us that you take the time to write to us and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful to us and help support us through very challenging times. To you we are forever grateful. As my readers know, I promised to write the blog for a year after Mattie's death, which would mean that I could technically stop writing on September 9, 2010. However, at the moment, I feel like our journey with grief still needs to be processed and fortunately I have a willing support network still committed to reading. Therefore, the blog continues on. If I should find the need to stop writing, I assure you I will give you advanced notice. In the mean time, thank you for reading, thank you for having the courage to share this journey with us, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.


As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki and Peter



The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation celebrates its 7th anniversary!

The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation was created in the honor of Mattie.

We are a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. We are dedicated to increasing childhood cancer awareness, education, advocacy, research and psychosocial support services to children, their families and medical personnel. Children and their families will be supported throughout the cancer treatment journey, to ensure access to quality psychosocial and mental health care, and to enable children to cope with cancer so they can lead happy and productive lives. Please visit the website at: www.mattiemiracle.com and take some time to explore the site.

We have only gotten this far because of people like yourself, who have supported us through thick and thin. So thank you for your continued support and caring, and remember:

.... Let's Make the Miracle Happen and Stomp Out Childhood Cancer!

A Remembrance Video of Mattie

October 13, 2018

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Saturday, October 13, 2018


Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2008. Mattie was two months into treatment, but it was before his first limb salvaging surgery. Which was why Mattie was moving around like a typical child. These flag poles are near where we live. In fact, whenever I pass them now on a walk, I am immediately transported back to this moment in time. A time when Mattie was walking and loved to weave between each of the poles. 






Quote of the day: Children are not just smaller, softer adults, and the differences matter for their treatment. ~ Kurt Newman


A friend of mine sent me an article entitled, Healing children': A surgeon's take on what kids need. She heard about this doctor and his book while listening to NPR. I believe what caught her attention on the radio was that the doctor's message resonated with Mattie Miracle's mission. 

The article focuses upon a surgeon and now CEO of Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. When Dr. Newman was asked what types of changes he hopes to see in health care for children, he mentioned two that caught my attention. The first change, is that he hopes to see more doctors and nurses getting trained in pediatric care and the second is that he would "put more into mental and behavioral health." 

I am not quite sure what he means by putting more into behavioral health. Money, training, and/or incorporating it into comprehensive care??? As I could interpret this statement in various ways. But one thing is quite clear, doctors can't work effectively without the support of psychosocial professionals. Especially with long term, chronic or life threatening illnesses. Children in these circumstances need much more than just the medicine and in many cases when children refuse medical treatment, have tantrums, are stressed out, and the list goes on..... who deals with this? NOT the medical doctors, I assure you. 

Instead, it is the psychosocial team that is called in to intercede. But what a recent national study indicated is that psychosocial professionals are not well trained in pediatric oncology issues for example. Let's take the profession of psychology. These individuals go through doctoral programs and may specialize in pediatrics. However, in many of these cases, this professional can graduate never having worked in a pediatric oncology clinic or unit. So literally if this professional selects an oncology setting to work in, it is literally baptism by fire. Learning on the job, since rarely do psychology grad students have the opportunity for training while in school! So YES it is my hope too that psychosocial (not just doctors and nurses) professionals choose pediatrics and also have the opportunity to get specific education and training in pediatric specialties before they enter the field and work independently with patients and families.  

Healing Children': A Surgeon's Take On What Kids Need:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/01/534884325/healing-children-a-surgeons-take-on-what-kids-need

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