Oak Lawn teenager Megan Bradbury (age 15) is giving back to kids fighting cancer. For the past two years Megan went shopping with money she’d received for her birthday and during the Christmas holiday season, all with the aim of benefitting the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (POTCF), a non-profit organization that provides toys, gifts and gift cards to children and teens diagnosed with cancer nationwide.
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Shortly after her successful shopping venture, Megan visited the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse and shared her experience, “After my sister’s friend, Abby, age (8), passed away due to brain cancer in August of 2013, I witnessed first hand what Abbey had to go through. That experience made me want to help kids like Abby as best as I can,” said Megan. Megan’s mom Julie Bradbury said, “We even went to Disney World this year and Megan forfeited her spending money in order to buy more gifts for the teens fighting cancer.”
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POTCF Founder and CEO Colleen Kisel is grateful for Megan’s help. “I’m overwhelmed by Megan’s remarkable demonstration of thoughtfulness and leadership,” said Colleen. “When most teens are out buying cloths for themselves, Megan is shopping for children and teens who endure years and years of cancer treatment. We are so blessed to have her support.”
The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 9,000 young cancer patients each month. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. Ms. Kisel founded the organization in 1996 after her then seven-year-old son Martin had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. She discovered that giving her son a toy after each procedure provided a calming distraction from his pain, noting that when children are diagnosed with cancer their world soon becomes filled with doctors, nurses, chemotherapy drugs, surgeries and seemingly endless painful procedures. Martin celebrated his 21st anniversary of remission from the disease in 2014.
If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s web site at www.treasurechest.org.
