Day 8 of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month with Special Love's Angela Ashman!

I had the pleasure of having a meaningful conversation this morning with SL Program Chair, Angela Ashman. She is a sibling of a cancer survivor, Andrew, and shares the origin story and how she parlayed her career in helping others with the Special Love, Inc., organization. It tickles me that she is the banner person, from a sibling's perspective, with Post-Traumatic Growth, and I like to include Gains because there are many gains when kids go to camp, especially at BRASS (Brothers and Sisters), which Angela loves so much and organizes today.

Our family has known Angela for almost three decades, first when Olivia attended BRASS Camp, where Angela was a counselor in the late 1990s. Then, as a family, we witnessed Angela's progression of heading to college, graduating, and taking a "part-time" admin job with Special Love. That's all it took for her to embrace the programming they offered then; now, she keeps it all going at the highest level as Program Director. Learn more about Angela from the SL Website.

I hope you enjoy our talk as much as I did:

Together, with Angela and the Special Love crew in the DMV area, we can make sure no family walks this road alone.

If you are not in the DMV area, please know there are 117 pediatric oncology camps—101 in the United States and 16 in Canada. You can find more information at COCA (Children's Oncology Camping Association). Please reach out and find a camp near you. Something magical may happen when children and their families spend time at the camps. It sure did happen to the Tomoff Family.

Terri