What a $50 Gas Card Actually Buys
On Wednesday we handed a $50 gas card to a cancer mom in the lobby of Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge.
She thanked us. She put the card in her wallet. She told us she was on her way to her son's eighth round of consolidation.
Here is what that $50 gas card actually buys.
Roughly two and a half tanks of gas for a midsize car in our area, at current prices.
Roughly four round trips from her home, in the western suburbs of Chicago, to Advocate Park Ridge.
Roughly two weeks of clinic drives during a heavy chemo phase.
One uninterrupted drive home from an inpatient discharge, without that mom having to think about whether she can afford to fill up the tank on the way.
A single morning of peace, where filling the gas tank is one less thing on a long list.
I will tell you the part I keep thinking about.
She did not thank us for the gas. She thanked us for not having to think about the gas. She said, "I have been doing the math at every gas station for a year. I am tired of doing the math."
That is what a $50 gas card buys. It buys a cancer mom a small interval of not doing the math.
She is back at clinic on Monday. We will be there.
Dina
Mom of Max | Founder, Maxwell’s Toy Shoppe
Childhood Cancer Advocate 💛
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