Comfycozy’s changing children’s experiences in hospitals
Sep 25, 2013, 6:36 PM | Updated: 6:36 pm
Comfycozy’s For Chemo.
The dream of a 9-year-old.
Amanda Hope was diagnosed with leukemia after blood tests revealed it wasn’t just the flu or a stomach virus but Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). More than two years of chemotherapy were going to be needed.
Medical tubes scratched Amanda’s skin and got tangled in her clothes. She was constantly having to take her shirt off, or lift it up, so doctors and nurses could place needles into her chest or arms for IV lines, blood transfusions and other chemotherapy procedures. She wanted to make a change — and not just for herself.
Her dream was to create a line of clothing that had zippers, slits and pockets to hold the clips and allow the tubes to be placed where they needed to be without the discomfort.
After nearly four years of being a patient, in March of 2012 Amanda lost her battle with leukemia.
During her last days she told her mom, Lorraine Tallman, she wanted all kids to have the shirts.
“Right before she passed away she held my hand and said, ‘Mommy promise me, promise me [that] every child, you’ll touch their lives and give them this shirt’ and I said ‘I promise,’ and that’s what I’m doing,” Tallman said through tears on Wednesday at KTAR’s Give-A-Thon for Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Hours of research later and some help from a professor in Philadelphia, Comfycozy’s For Chemo became a reality.
“Her little dream, her little vision became my passion,” she said.
The first outreach to hospitals was last year over the holiday season when 500 patients at Phoenix Children’s Hospital were given Comfycozy’s.
The shirts have made their way to multiple other Phoenix hospitals and to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle and 200 shirts are being sent to Cleveland this week.
They are planning to go international as well.
“[The goal is for] every child that’s diagnosed, no matter where they are around the world, to get a new patient pack,” Tallman said is what she would like to happen with Comfycozy’s.
Below Lorraine tells the story of her daughter Amanda and the impact she wants to make in her honor.
For more information visit comfycozys.com. Become a fan of theirs and “like” them on Facebook.
