As Dr. Ricardo Flores, clinical director of the Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, listened to the news about the devastation in Puerto Rico after the island was slammed with two hurricanes in less than a month, he knew he had to do something to help his homeland.
So, he and some of his friends in the area who are also from Puerto Rico did some research and joined the group, Texas United for Puerto Rico. Within a few days, they had gathered thousands of pound of supplies, including medications, and were sending them to the many people in need on their island.
Word of Flores’ efforts soon reached the City of Houston prompting Mayor Sylvester Turner to call him and ask if he could join forces with the physician. Flores agreed and before long he and a small group of city officials were on a plane to Puerto Rico with 50,000 pounds of supplies in tow.
“It was a titanic effort,” Flores said of the delivery of the supplies, which included medications and food. “Thanks to the community and to the help of so many people, we were able to distribute the entire load.”
Flores said he will continue to work to help his home recover from what he said is an awful situation that has left people without adequate food, water and medication.
“It’s definitely much worse than what people are thinking,” he said. “It’s literally like we went back 100 years in our history in the blink of an eye.”
Click here and here to watch area news coverage of Flores’ efforts in Puerto Rico.
Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s Making A Mark art exhibition is showing on The Auxiliary Bridge until Friday, October 27. Sponsored by the Periwinkle Foundation, this exhibit showcases more than 300 pieces of art created by young patients as well as larger-than-life pieces made in collaboration with local artist Jon Clark. The exhibit is in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month in September.
Patients worked with Jon Clark over the spring and summer while receiving treatment to create this year’s collaborative piece “Flourish” using repurposed medical supplies. Each year, Periwinkle invites a guest artist guides and curates a final piece of art for display. Clark joins a distinguished group of past guest artists, including Elaine Bradford, John Palmer, Kelly Gale Amen, Anat Ronen and Reginald Adams.
As a special feature of this year’s Making A Mark exhibit, select artwork has been paired with songs from Periwinkle Arts In Medicine partner, Purple Songs Can Fly. The songs were written by patients and siblings from Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Hematology Centers and can be found throughout the exhibit. Just look for a purple musical note!
October 3, 2017
Last week, NASA astronauts and a Roscosmos cosmonaut from its international partners worked hand-in-hand on a beautiful art project with the bravest heroes of all, patients at Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
As part of NASA’s Spacesuit Art Project and the Periwinkle Arts In Medicine program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center, NASA astronauts Jack Fischer, Nicole Stott, Mike Foreman, Doug Wheelock and Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Nikolay iTikhonov spent the morning with the children painting on fabric pieces that will be used to create the VICTORY and EXPLORATION art spacesuits.
“The opportunity to work with NASA and its international partners on this incredible project is such an honor,” said Carol Herron, Periwinkle Arts In Medicine program coordinator at Texas Children’s Cancer Center. “For our patients to create amazing art with these amazing astronauts and then see their work in space will be truly inspiring.”
The EXPLORATION suit, the fourth spacesuit of the Spacesuit Art Project, one of the two spacesuits worked on last week, can be seen on permanent display in the following months at Space Center Houston, NASA’s Johnson Space Center visitor center.
View photos from last week’s event, including a shot of one of the spacesuits below.
The VICTORY spacesuit, the fifth spacesuit created, symbolizes the end of the cancer journey, something every staff member, patient and family at Texas Children’s Cancer Center strives for. Getting each patient to that moment where they ring the end-of-treatment bell is everyone’s goal – the ultimate victory.
The VICTORY spacesuit cover is planned to be worn on the outside of a Russian Orlan Spacesuit and is planned to be jettisoned into space from the International Space Station during a Russian spacewalk later in 2018 as the first ever orbiting art exhibit in space.
You can follow the Spacesuit Art Project’s progress on Social Media at:
More about the NASA Spacesuit Art Project:
The Spacesuit Art Project began in Houston through a partnership between NASA, the Arts in Medicine program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and spacesuit company ILC Dover to help raise awareness to the issues surrounding childhood cancer and to reveal the positive connection between the arts and the healing process. The project has grown into a global collaboration of the five international space agencies that built the International Space Station and pediatric cancer patients and hospital’s Arts in Medicine Programs from the respective partner countries in the United States, Canada, Russia, Europe, and Japan. It continues to grow globally with this Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Periwinkle Foundation event, and with more and more hospital participation around the world. The Project brings childhood cancer patients, their families, doctors, hospital staff, International scientists, engineers, astronauts and cosmonauts together through this unique endeavor. It is an amazing story of human triumph and hope by combining science, technology, the arts, and the indomitable human spirit. The spacesuits are a stunningly beautiful representation of what can happen when art, science, and the healing process unite. All of the spacesuit replicas travel to events, museums, conferences and other relevant places as a communications tool to help to raise awareness to the issues surrounding childhood cancer.
The Periwinkle Arts In Medicine program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center has been dedicated to bringing the healing power of the arts to patients throughout their cancer journey for over 20 years. To learn more about the program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center, visit txch.org/arts-in-medicine.
September 26, 2017
Anita Kruse, executive director of Purple Songs Can Fly, and Lisa Sheinbaum, owner of Art For All, recently joined efforts to publish a book benefiting Purple Songs Can Fly, a program that provides a musical outlet for children being treated for cancer and blood disorders at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers.
Titled ‘Purple Song,’ the book was written by Kruse and illustrated by Sheinbaum. Through their words and pictures, the women produced a story about Purple Song, a little purple companion shaped like a treble clef with wings who shows readers how to sing their way through their troubles.
“‘Purple Song’ lets you see that friendship can emerge into beautiful melodies,” Kruse said. “We want readers to join Purple Song as she lifts them up and shares her connection to the power of music.”
Published by LongTale Publishing, a portion of the books proceeds will go to Purple Songs Can Fly. You can purchase ‘Purple Song’ at Texas Children’s gift shops and retail outlets such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
September 12, 2017
Each year in September, Texas Children’s Cancer Center goes gold to honor the courageous journeys of our patients and families who have been touched by pediatric cancer and to create awareness about the challenges these children and their loved ones face. It is also a special time to honor the Cancer Center’s staff and everyone involved in the care and support of those who come to Texas Children’s seeking our aid.
Today, you will hear from patients, family members, doctors and other medical staff as they explain why they Go Gold in September and what makes raising awareness about pediatric cancer so important. Throughout the month, there are several events scheduled across the organization geared toward raising awareness about childhood cancer. Some of those event are listed below. Please check the Connect calendar and the Cancer Center’s Facebook page for additional details.
Upcoming cancer awareness activities:
September 7-30 – Smart Financial Center in Sugar Land will be lit gold
September 12 at 10 a.m. – Main Campus Going Gold Parade/Ribbon Tying and Purple Songs Can Fly Book release in clinic
September 16-19 – Houston City Hall will be lit gold
September 16 – Sickle Cell Education and Research Day and Purple Songs Can Fly book release at River Oaks Bookstore
September 20 at 10 a.m. – The Woodlands Going Gold Parade and Ribbon Tying Event
September 21 at 10 a.m. – West Campus Going Gold Parade and Ribbon Tying Event
September 25-29 – Global Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) Awareness Week (concluding with September 29 as “Sport purple for platelets day”)
September 27-28 – Ewing Sarcoma Conference
To learn more about Texas Children’s Cancer Center, click here.
June 27, 2017
On June 19, sickle cell patients, families, physicians and others joined forces to celebrate World Sickle Cell Day and raise awareness about sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disorder that affects about 100,000 Americans and many more worldwide.
Held in the lobby of the Children’s Nutrition Research Center, the event featured an art project created by sickle cell patients from across the globe, music from a sickle cell patient involved in Purple Songs Can Fly, educational booths from various sickle cell-related organizations and comments from members of the Texas Children’s Sickle Cell Center.
View photos from the event below.
“Sickle cell disease is a condition that affects a large number of people worldwide,” said Dr. Donald Mahoney Jr., director of Texas Children’s Hematology Center. “It can affect every organ in the body and can cause serious complications if not treated.”
Texas Children’s has been at the forefront of the fight against sickle cell disease for decades, screening newborns for the disease since the 1950s. In 2001, Texas Children’s combined efforts and created Texas Children’s Sickle Cell Center, which offers comprehensive family-centered care for children with this complex blood disorder.
The program’s individualized course of treatment includes patient care, education, psychosocial support services, screening and counseling for children and their families. Serving more than 1,100 children each year, Texas Children’s Sickle Cell Center is one of the largest in Texas, offering the latest treatments including hydroxyurea, transfusions and stem cell transplantation.
“We are really fortunate here at Texas Children’s to be able to provide such dedicated care,” said Dr. Amber Yates, co-director of Texas Children’s Sickle Cell Center. “We have a large team and all we do is focus on children with sickle cell disease.”
The team also focuses on research and combatting sickle cell disease overseas in Africa where many more people suffer from the disease and screening and treatment are limited.
“We are one of the main centers of clinical research in sickle cell disease,” said Dr. Alex George, co-director of Texas Children’s Sickle Cell Center. “We have a strong research infrastructure and we have a well-organized clinical and research basis, which makes us an attractive research partner both for industry, pharmaceutical companies and for other institutions.”
Researchers collaborate with colleagues at other research institutions on different projects involving possible new medications for patients with sickle cell disease. Such research, George said, is key to treating and curing these patients.
The program’s global efforts began in 2011 in Angola where Texas Children’s physicians started screening and treating babies with sickle cell. To date, close to 200,000 babies have been screened with about one in 65 having sickle cell disease disease. Texas Children’s is also in Malawi, Uganda, Botswana and other areas of Sub-Saharan Africa screening and treating children with sickle cell disease, and training local physicians to do the same.
“Our hope is that there will be a day when the place where a child is born does not determine whether or not they survive this disease,” said Dr. Gladstone Airewele, director of Texas Children’s Global Hematology Program.
Click here to read a blog by Jamilah Cummings, the mother of Joshua, a patient sickle cell disease at Texas Children’s Hospital. To learn more about Texas Children’s Sickle Cell Center click here.
Click here to watch ABC-13’s segment about Yates’ patient Anaya Sparks. The 7-year-old triplet has sickle cell disease.
June 20, 2017
Summer camp came to the Cancer Center last week creating a nice surprise for patients and families arriving for an appointment, consultation or treatment.
“It makes it less stressful on the parents for sure,” said Andrea Carter as she watched her 6-year-old daughter stuff a plush sea turtle with soft cotton. “It makes the time go by much faster.”
Organized by Camp Periwinkle and sponsored by Northwestern Mutual, the two-day affair included Disney-themed decorations, various arts and crafts, face painting, games, music and more. The camp was held in the Cancer Center’s infusion and waiting room areas for easy access to all.
“From the second they get off the elevator we want them to hear and see the fun,” said Erin Locke, community programs director for Camp Periwinkle. “We want them to forget about why they are here and just have a good time.”
This is the sixth year Camp Periwinkle has been held at the Cancer Center and the first year for Northwestern Mutual to sponsor the event.
Northwestern Mutual employee Patrice Swanson volunteered at the camp and said it was a joy to participate in such a wonderful occasion.
“Any time you can come and help encourage families who are going through a difficult time is good,” she said.
To learn more about Camp Periwinkle click here. To learn more about Texas Children’s Cancer Center click here.
