Jessica (Jessie) Joy Rees is known to thousands as a pioneer, a leader and a spokesperson for pediatric cancer awareness. More importantly, she is a hero and inspiration to the over 250,000 kids and their families, who are currently fighting cancer all over the world. In March of 2011, Jessie was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), which is a brain tumor within and around the brain stem, making it inoperable. During her 10 month fight, a time when most people would be looking inward, 12 year old Jessie chose to focus her time and energy helping other kids—courageous kids, who felt lonely and limited due to their own fights with cancer.
Since Jessie’s passing in early 2012, the Jessie Rees Foundation has continued to provide care to countless kids fighting cancer by delivering Jessie’s JoyJars to hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses. In addition, Jessie’s parents, Erik and Stacey Rees, learned through their journey in caring for a child with cancer, that there was a lack of online resources made available to parents and families. In order to fill this void, the Jessie Rees Foundation developed it’s very own family resource network. The Jessie Rees Foundation Family Resource Network is a place for parents to locate children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses, national childhood cancer foundations, financial support foundations, camps and more. The Jessie Foundation team will continue to search for and add valuable sources of information to help parents in the most difficult time of their lives.
Dear Parents,
I want you to know the Jessie Rees Foundation is here for YOU and your courageous child. Stacey and I know first-hand what it feels like to be told your child has cancer, search for treatments around the world, watch bills pile up, try to manage your other kids, keep your job going, pray for a miracle, try new foods, sit at chemo, wait for radiation to get over, attend MRI …the list goes on.
NO child or parent should have to go through what we have, but they do, so we HELP.
We hope the Jessie Rees Foundation and the NEGU Family Network can help you. Please visit us at www.families.negu.wpengine.com.
NEGU,
Erik & Stacey Rees