Jack's Journey
When Cheryl Brandt learned that 2-year-old Jack had been diagnosed with cancer, she rallied her co-workers to do what they could to help.
Bell Employees
Cheryl Brandt, mortgage loan processor, Burnsville, Minn.
Amanda Atkins, secondary market analyst, Bloomington, Minn.
Recipient
Jack Adams
The Need
Shortly after Jack’s second birthday, he stopped sleeping and walking. He had always been a good sleeper, so his parents took him to get checked out.
They’d hoped it was just that his molars were coming in, and the pain was keeping him up at night, but an MRI revealed Jack had leukemia, a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.
The Impact
Every year, Cheryl Brandt asks God to show her where to donate her Pay It Forward funds. When she learned about Jack’s diagnoses, Cheryl had her answer. She told her co-worker, Amanda Atkins, about Jack and they recruited others to go in on a group donation.
“At a time where it just feels so incredibly lonely and heartbreaking, to have these gifts and the generosity and the amount of people who come through at levels you would never even imagine possible, it’s amazing,” remarks Kari Adams, Jack’s mom. “It really carried us, and it continues to carry us.”