WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas is expanding its services with a new family assistance van, which was unveiled Tuesday at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill. The van will help transport family advocates to hospitals, as well as bring necessities, like diapers, to patients.
What You Need To Know
Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas is expanding its services with a new family assistance van
The van was unveiled Tuesday at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill
This service will help transport family advocates to hospitals as well as bring necessities like diapers to patients
Reading books and riding bikes are things most 5-year-olds, including Perry Coxe, love to do.
“We always joke that she is kind of an old soul. She's very wise and youthful for her age, but she's very compassionate. She's very sweet and super thoughtful,” said Brittany Coxe, Perry’s mom.
Perry Coxe is also fighting cancer.
“It has been a long road. She was diagnosed September 11, 2021. A day we will never forget,” Brittany Coxe said.
“It was a stage three Wilms tumor. Wilms tumor is specific to pediatric kidney cancer, so it's something we've gotten really familiar with,” said Griffin Coxe, Perry’s dad.
Perry Coxe gets treated at Duke University Hospital. The nonprofit, Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas, has helped the Coxe family with unexpected costs.
“Everybody thinks pretty quickly about the medical bills from a financial perspective, but you don't really think about how it adds up when you're in the hospital for a few days longer than you expect, and you have to have meals every day. Parking adds up. All those things. So Children Cancer Partners does a really cool job of helping alleviate that burden from families so it’s not something you have to worry about,” Griffin Coxe said.
The Coxe family was excited to learn that the organization now has a new van service, which can also be used to bring patients to and from treatments.
“This is again going to take one less thing that you're not going to have to worry about, and you can focus on what’s most important, and that’s what’s really cool to see that Children Cancer Partners are stepping in to do that,” Griffin Coxe said.
There’s also a familiar face on the side of that van: Perry Coxe.
“It's a big honor for us whenever they were introducing that to us and presenting that with us that Perry is going to be one of the future children on the van. It's really cool to know that she will be a part of that journey with them,” Griffin Coxe said.
Now the Coxe family is counting down the number of treatment days left for Perry, while also hoping their story and this new service gives hope to other families.
“You know it’s just so amazing to know that you genuinely are not going through it alone,” Brittany Coxe said.
“You're not alone in this, and there are resources out there,” Griffin Coxe said.
Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas serves over 1,200 kids across the state with the largest percentage being Wake County children.
Perry Coxe is on track to have her last cancer treatment at the end of August.