Our Nation's Best: A Kid Again, with Kathy Derr

Today's show features an interview with Kathy Derr, Co-Founder and Director of Family Engagement for A Kid Again, a national organization with a mission to foster hope, happiness and healing for children with life-threatening health conditions and their families. The organization provides cost-free, consistent, year-round activities that create meaningful shared experiences and joy-filled memories. A Kid Again serves families in all 50 states, growing and enrolling families, and providing support resources and connections to help families cope with the challenges of raising children with difficult medical journeys. With more than 1.5 million children across the United States suffering from life-threatening conditions, A Kid Again is committed to reaching as many of these impacted families as possible.

Co-founder Kathy Derr iand two friends started the nonprofit more than 25 years ago in memory of Kathy’s son Christopher after he passed away from an inoperable brain tumor. The spark for A Kid Again was inspired by the kindness of Kathy’s family and friends who organized outings for her family during her son’s battle with cancer. A Kid Again is the only childhood disease nonprofit that focuses on group recreation and support for the entire family, not just the child with the illness. Today, A Kid Again serves more than 11,000 families nationwide.

 

A Kid Again link and social media handles:  https://akidagain.org/

 

https://www.facebook.com/akidagain/

https://www.instagram.com/a_kid_again/

https://twitter.com/akidagain

 

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About Janet


Blessed with varied interests and an artistic and musical upbringing, Janet had health challenges throughout her young adult life. Despite these she graduated Cum Laude from Wellesley College with an award of distinction for acting, and had also been a champion equestrian. She began a family with her husband Barry later in life, and had finally found happiness with daughter Sophie-Marie (3/12/06) and then baby (Jack 8/30/08). Five weeks after his birth, the family escaped a wildfire in which all worldly possessions were lost. The family relocated in December of 2008 to Agua Dulce CA where they currently reside.

Jack began to have unsettling symptoms at the age of 3; he was taken to Children's Hospital Los Angeles and was diagnosed with DIPG, or diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, on Friday Oct. 28, 2011, indisputably the darkest experience of Janet's life. The outrage of it made her determined to find the good in the situation, and she asked God to "Put me to work!" After Jack's death, she remained determined to start working to find solutions to DIPG and incorporated Jack's Angels at the end of 2012; the Foundation began its work in 2013. Despite the fact that DIPG is responsible for the majority of brain tumor deaths in children, she had been told there were no solutions for Jack because "the numbers aren't great enough for investors." This remains the primary motivation in her advocacy work, to prioritize children's lives in our medical system in the United States.