March, 2024
Dear Friends,
A childhood cancer diagnosis has significant effects on a family’s financial health and prospects for the future. Balancing a child’s cancer treatment and work can cause work-family conflict impacting a parent’s career progression even after their child’s recovery from cancer. In our grant applications we see that almost every family has had to either reduce work hours or leave their job entirely to care for their child. Many of the families we support work seasonally, hourly or are self-employed and although they are eligible for family leave, it is mostly unpaid. They are also living on an income of $60,000 or less with little to no savings; they are barely making ends meet before cancer.
What would it mean for you to see fifty percent of your income disappear? How would your life change? How would you feel knowing that you may not be able to pay the mortgage this month, or that you may have to choose between buying groceries or paying the electric bill? Will you have the cash to pick up that prescription your child needs? These are the questions JUST TRYAN IT grantees face everyday.
The stress of not being able to pay the bills and take care of your family’s basic needs takes a physical and mental toll on parents with a child in cancer treatment. JUST TRYAN IT’s goal is to alleviate that financial burden so that parents can focus on the needs of their child.
In 2023, JUST TRYAN IT supported 156 families: 113 families with emergency financial assistance, 18 families with Deep Need grants, and 25 families with gift cards. All of these families had a child in cancer treatment at one of our partner hospitals in Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC or North Carolina. The average Emergency Assistance grant amount was $1,603 and the average Deep Need grant was $6,666.
The 2023 Impact Report provides greater detail of who we serve and how we help them. I hope you will take the time to review this report to learn more about our work with families and our very successful Kids Triathlons.
Our work would not be possible without you, our racers, volunteers, and donors. 2024 marks the15th Kids Triathlon in Bethesda and over those 15 years we have raised more than 5.5 million dollars to support families in need. Thank you for your generosity and commitment to serving others.
Thank you,
Maureen Colburn
Executive Director