Helping Children with Cancer

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Gill Center Community Support Options

Families are devastated when they find that their child has cancer. Children’s Health℠  provides treatment with assistance from a diverse team of medical professionals. However, the community provides support in many other ways. This information provided by the Pauline Allen Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Health offers guidance on ways to benefit these families during a difficult time.

Children’s Health diagnoses and treats children from birth to age 18 for cancer. These patients are not only diverse in their ages, but in the types of cancer, treatment, prognosis, culture, spiritual beliefs and home life.

If you know someone personally coping with childhood cancer, the best way to find out what they need is to ask. Many times running errands, picking up the mail, cooking meals, mowing the lawn, doing the laundry or simply being available to listen helps so much.

Many patients receive gifts from their own family and friends. Some families choose to bring gifts to the hospital for the entire unit or to benefit other children, as well. For infection control reasons, some items cannot be accepted as gifts. Therefore, please contact Children’s Health prior to coordinating your donation.

Clinic Food Baskets Movies Prize Closet Donations Monetary Gifts Volunteering Blood Donations Holiday Party Toy Drive
Clinic Food Baskets

Clinic Food Baskets

Patients and their families may spend several hours in clinic. These visits may not allow time away for lunch or snacks. Providing food baskets in the clinic offers families healthy, convenient options that are always greatly appreciated.

Food Basket suggestions:
All items need to be in single-serving sizes or packaging

  • Peanut Butter and Crackers
  • Cheese and Crackers
  • Individual containers of peanut butter (to put on fruit, graham crackers, etc)
  • Nuts – roasted and out of shell (peanuts, almonds, cashews, etc)
  • Cereal
  • Canned or fruit cups (pears, peaches, pineapple, applesauce, etc.)
  • Fresh baby carrots or celery
  • Fruit leather/dried fruit
  • Dried fruit
  • Crackers (saltines, club crackers, graham crackers, goldfish)
  • Pretzels
  • Bottled water/Flavored bottled water
  • Small juice boxes
  • Straws & cups (8 oz or larger)
  • Teddy Grahams
  • Vanilla Wafers
  • Jell-O or pudding cups (regular or sugar free)
  • Baked chips
  • Muffins
  • Granola
  • Microwave popcorn
  • Dum Dums pops

If you would like to make a food basket, prize closet or movie donation, contact:
Gill Center Outreach Manager
214-456-2805
GillCenter@childrens.com

Movies

Movies

Children’s Health equips the oncology exam rooms, infusion suite and hospital rooms with DVD players for the convenience of patient families. Patients may watch movies while waiting for examinations to help lessen anxiety during lengthy chemotherapy infusions or blood transfusions and hospitalizations. Movies rated G to PG-13 and in many languages are needed.

If you would like to make a food basket, prize closet or movie donation, contact:
Gill Center Outreach Manager
214-456-2805
GillCenter@childrens.com

Prize Closet Donations

Prize Closet Donations

The Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders outpatient unit has more than 100 patients visit between the Dallas and Plano campuses for clinic appointments each weekday. Many of these patients undergo invasive procedures such as spinal taps, bone marrow aspirates and blood draws. After completing a procedure, patients choose an item from the Gill Center prize closet. These prizes serve as important distraction and comfort items for children during their treatments.

Prize closet suggestions:
All items must be new to prevent infection.

  • Mini Potato Heads
  • Dinosaurs/bugs
  • Mini Lego kits
  • Bubbles (small or ‘bubble tumblers’)
  • Matchbox/ Hot Wheels cars
  • Small costume jewelry
  • Army and parachute men
  • Toddler-age board books
  • Individual small art sets
  • Mini make-up kits/mini nail polish
  • Plastic animals
  • Disney or cartoon-theme items
  • Stickers (Disney characters, animals, scrapbook themes)
  • Journals, themed spiral notebooks
  • Gel pens (colored)
  • Draw-string backpacks
  • Child-friendly tattoos
  • Puzzles (24-100 count)
  • Paint-by-number activity
  • Velvet marker coloring
  • Sun-catcher painting kits
  • Teen bracelet kits
  • Building & painting crafts
  • Whoopee cushions

If you would like to make a food basket, prize closet or movie donation, contact:
Gill Center Outreach Manager
214-456-2805
GillCenter@childrens.com

Monetary Gifts

Monetary Gifts

As a private, not-for-profit academic medical center, Children’s Health relies on the generosity of our community to support its mission to make life better for children.

Give now or for information about giving, please contact Children’s Medical Center Foundation

Volunteering

Volunteering

If you would like to volunteer at Children's Health in the Gill Center, contact Volunteer Services.

Blood Donations

Blood Donations

Cancer patients receive many different types of blood products during treatment. Children’s Health receives these products by life-saving donations made through Carter BloodCare, the community not-for-profit blood center in North Central and East Texas.

Contact Carter BloodCare for more information about:

  • Donor eligibility
  • Blood drives for a specific patient
  • Different types of donations

Carter BloodCare 

Holiday Party Toy Drive

Patient Holiday Party Toy Drive

Holiday Toy Drive Flyer

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By Your Side

With 24 pediatric hematologists and oncologists on staff, all of whom are faculty members at UT Southwestern Medical Center, we care for more than 1,000 new patients each year making the Gill Center the largest childhood cancer and blood center in the region.