Ten years ago, my neighbor knocked on my door and handed me a locket that read “I Carry Your Heart” on the front, and “I Carry It In My Heart” on the inside. An excerpt from a beautiful poem by EE Cummings that immediately resonated with such force that I needed to share it with other grieving moms. I have been sending lockets to bereaved moms with their child’s photo inside ever since.

Just a few years later, that same neighbor texted me because her nephew was diagnosed with DIPG, a pediatric brain tumor that is terminal upon diagnosis. I had previously felt like my efforts to give lockets to others was my way of bringing her kind gesture full circle. But cancer found another way to circle back by forcing me to add her sister to my running list of bereaved moms. How cruel and unfair is this disgusting disease!?

I don’t want to do this anymore. I am tired of uploading HUNDREDS of photos of children who died each year, cutting them into heart shapes to place into lockets, writing their names on envelopes, and mailing them to moms who share my pain. But the only way this will stop is by funding research to change the outcomes for these children.

Everyone has been so generous, and I am grateful. You can still sponsor a locket for a bereaved mom through the link below, because I won’t stop until the statistics change and the requests stop pouring in. Or simply make a donation in any amount to help us fund great research.  Our goal is to raise $10,000 in May for Brain Tumor Awareness Month through sponsored lockets and donations. Please help us get there.

Sincerely,

Cindy Campbell