2024 Radiothon - The Alford Family

We highlight the Alford Family - one of the Miracle Families for the 2024 Radiothon. 9-year old Thor was diagnosed with Thor was diagnosed with AML or acute myeloid leukemia in October of 2022. 

The Alford family told us that "the people there and the services there were beyond my expectations. You know, we benefited from so many services, Thor went through 5 rounds of chemotherapy. We had
about a week break in between, so we had to wait for his blood counts to come back to an ok
number so we could go home for a week. During that time, Thor was pretty active and we
needed a lot of services. So, we had educational services, we had taken advantage of P.O.R.T.
which is a really great service, so that people like us can get gas cards, can get gift cards to
things like Starbucks, can go to the hospital cafeteria for some food. We benefited from child
life. I think Thor could tell you about a billion things that child life did with him and that was
really awesome."

Would you consider donating today? Visit https://corewellhealth.org/foundation/west/helen-devos-childrens-hospital/radiothon 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Kristin Alford. I'm from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and this
is my son Thor.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi. I'm Thora and I'm nine years old.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thor was diagnosed with AML or acute my laid leukemia
in October of twenty twenty two.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
What ended up happening was about a week prior to
him being admitted, he started getting fevers. We took him
into the doctor.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
The doctor said, why don't we just get a blood
test and see what's going on. And I just remember
around four o'clock getting a call from the doctor and
she said, Kristin, you have to take Thor into the
er right now at Helen de Bos Children's Hospital because
I think he has leukemia.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Crumussy, we'll find me.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
It was really tough. So they told us that we'd
be admitted for the night, and then we were told
we'd be admitted for a week, and that turned into
basically six months of impatient in the hospital.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
I would say probably the worst part of the whole
thing was the first week. We knew what was happening,
but we didn't know what was going to happen next,
and you know, the doctors had to figure out exactly
what was happening, what was going on, and then put
together a plan to fight it.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Of course, I'm in public health and I used to
work in a cancer program, and so just knowing kind
of maybe a little bit too much was really scary
for me.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
It was hard, sad, scary.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
The people there and the services there were beyond my expectations.
You know, we benefited from so many services. Thor went
through five rounds of chemotherapy. We had about a week
break in between, so we had to wait for his
blood counts to come back to an okay number so

(02:02):
we could go home for a week. During that time,
Thora was pretty active and we needed a lot of services,
so we had educational services. We had taken advantage of
port which is a really great service set so that
people like us can get gas cards, can get gift

(02:23):
cards to things like Starbucks, can go to the hospital
cafeteria for some food. We benefited from Childlife. I think
Thora could tell you about a billion things that Childlife
did with him, and that was really awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
I would always frye my big wheel. We'd call it.
It was like a three wheel tricycle.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah. Thora would take this big wheel that they had
through Child life and just big wheel through the hallways
and it was really funny to watch. And a lot
of times they would set up little obstacles or give
him speeding tickets. One time they had the security guard
come up from downstairs and issue him a citation. We
really appreciated just everyone stepping up and gathering around us,

(03:03):
just the community at the hospital. If there were so
many kids. I was shocked by just all the families
coming in and out just of the ninth floor. I
mean we were only on one floor of the hospital,
and I just saw so many families coming in and out,

(03:25):
so many kids affected, and they all were complicated or
complex cases in their own right. I hope that people
will be inclined to provide some money if they have it,
to support some of these services.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Please call one eight hundred B ninety three kids help
kids like me for Christmas. If my dreams Love