LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Inside their facilities near Town Center Drive and the 215 in Summerlin South, doctors and staff at Cure 4 The Kids Foundation are hard at work serving more than 4,000 patients annually.
"We're a club you don't necessarily want to join," staff member Amber Williams tells KTNV. "People only learn about [us] when they have a child diagnosed with cancer or a rare disease or they have a family member or a friend diagnosed."
Southern Nevada's only pediatric cancer and rare disease treatment facility goes beyond chemotherapy in an effort to achieve the best results.
For example, the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education Learning Center is on-site to help students continue their school work. Since children being treated for cancer have compromised immune systems, they can't attend traditional school classrooms where infections could be deadly. There's even a licensed Clark County School District teacher and two teacher's aides to help. A special congratulations are in order to the 33 high school seniors who will graduate this year while receiving treatment.
"It's our job to continue that education plan for them," Williams said. "We're seeing that if we fight with them and we make sure they stay on track with their education, it proves to them that they're going to make it through the journey, and we see the light at the end of the tunnel for them, and it's going to be okay."
In addition to the mind, Cure 4 The Kids also tends to the body because patients who undergo an exercise regimen during their caner treatment have fewer mobility-related issues. Equipment provided by UFC fills the Robert and Dorothy Keyser Foundation and the Cashman Family Foundation Physical Therapy Gym.
"The chemotherapy and the treatment that we're giving these kids, it has side effects," Williams tells KTNV. "We're trying to save their life so as we're giving them these treatments, we know what it's going to do. We're trying to keep them out of a wheelchair before it's too late. We know what it's going to do to their joints, and we know what it's going to do to their muscles."
On account of their life-saving work, Findlay Automotive Group's Jeff Giles honors Cure 4 The Kids Foundation as July's Vegas Stronger Champion.
"We've heard of what you do," Giles told Williams as he presented a donation check. "Thinking of everything kids need, including active time while getting treatment, and continuing their education and having licensed teachers at the facility here, these are crucial, important things that no one else offers, so that's why you're our Vegas Stronger Champion."
Connect with Cure 4 The Kids Foundation via their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
