Community Corner

A Patient Helping Patients: Teen with Cancer Creates Charity, Ripple Effect

Emma Rose Paulson, a Brookfield Academy student diagnosed with cancer, launched a collection program to brighten the day of other cancer patients and families during their hospital stays.

As a teenager diagnosed with cancer, Emma Rose Paulson found herself spending time in and visiting the hospital on a regular basis.

The life-changing experience wouldn't leave her in a state of negativity, though; instead, Emma was inspired to launch "A Patient Helping Patients," a charity that donates comfort items to cancer patients and their families, ranging from lip balm to nail polish as well as activities or movies to pass the time.

"Since my diagnosis, many people have helped my family and me in many ways. Now, I want to do something to give back. I want to help other kids with cancer who are also being treated at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin," Emma wrote on the Facebook page for the organization.

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The first delivery to hospital patients was made in November 2012, just in time for Emma's 10-month anniversary since her diagnosis. The family is now overwhelmed with donations, but has no complaints.

On diagnosis: 'I just broke down in a chair'

Emma was an athlete, running cross country all throughout middle school and into high school. During her sophomore year at Brookfield Academy, she noticed her performance dwindling despite ongoing training.

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"At my meets I was putting so much effort — but my times were like minutes slower than the year before," she said. 

These signs — many of which the family recognizes now looking back — weren't limited to the track. Emma said she was very pale leading up to her diagnosis, she had difficulty walking up stairs and an accelerated heartbeat that would wake her up at night.

On the day of her diagnosis, she felt sick and was not sure she could make it to school; the family lives in Mequon, so Emma hopped in the car to take the 30-minute ride, with the intent of evaluating how she felt upon arrival.

She couldn't get out of the car, and her dad drove her to the hospital. The family thought she might have anemia or something along that line, but after bloodwork hospital officials confirmed: Emma had leukemia.

"I just broke down in a chair and one of the moms had to drive me to the hospital," Kim Paulson, Emma's mother, said of finding out about Emma's diagnosis. Kim is a teacher and was at work when she found out. "It was just surreal."

A Patient Helping Patients: The Beginning

After the day of Emma's diagnosis, she spent the next 10 days in the hospital. Though not a fun reason for visitors, Emma said the people who came made things that much better.

"(Those first days) were really fun, with gifts to take your mind off things," Emma noticed. But as her treatment progressed over the months, her intermittent stays in the hospital were met with fewer and fewer visitors. "People were kind of used to it," she said.

She started to recognize a lot of other kids in the hospital for the treatments, some rarely getting visitors or left alone because their parents had to return to work.

"Those days go by so slowly, there is nothing going on, you're stuck in a hospital bed," Emma said. She wanted to do something to brighten the days of those stuck in the hospital, and A Patient Helping Patients was born.

The plan was to collect comfort items to make the patients' stay more enjoyable: items like Pillow Pets, socks, scented hand sanitizers (the nonscented kinds are reminiscent of undesirable parts of the cancer treatment, Emma said), lip balm, soft blankets and more.

After launching the Facebook page, Emma and her family were surprised at how quickly it grew. Within a week, the page had about 300 likes, and continued to grow, "and then all of a sudden we started getting gifts," Kim said.

The page now has more than 4,500 likes. Emma said the response has been overwhelming.

"I remember starting this and thinking ... what if we don't get donations?" Emma said. "But now we're like overwhelmed with donations."

The ripple effect

Though Emma's observations of the lonely hospital atmosphere for patients further along with treatment were a large part of her desire to launch A Patient Helping Patients, she also credited other people across the country who have done similar charity projects.

Now, Emma said, she's inspired a few others to follow suit, starting different types of charity movements of their own.

"The ripple effects are all good, so you've got this terrible cancer — but the ripple of good just spreads," Kim said. "All these people who want to do the same things now, in their community."

The ripple effect is also having a local impact, with area residents reaching out to Emma and her family and sending donations.

They've also had quite a few children who have heard about what Emma is doing, and decided to donate their birthday or Christmas presents to the cause, rather than ask for gifts for themselves. (See more about this in the photo gallery attached.)

"It's really neat, the chain reaction that it's having in the community," Kim said.

What was even more surprising to Emma and Kim was the number of donations that came from families of the patients themselves.

"They're some of the ones that are the most generous," Kim said, "so that's cool."

Research and the future of treatment

Emma is now in the maintenance phase of her treatment, and will receive monthly spinal taps as well as take oral pills daily; once a week, she takes a mix of about 15 different pills.

Though Emma had never thought about studying a medical field before her diagnosis, this experience has her thinking about pursuing a career as a physical therapist.

And the family doesn't anticipate ever giving up on the Patient Helping Patients project, but do realize that its goals and initiatives may evolve.

"I think that's one of the things that has come from this — I'm realizing ... she could be an advocate for this, to raise awareness," Kim said.

Kim is specifically talking about advocating the not-well-known fact that very little money donated for cancer research actually goes toward researching childhood cancer.

Kim and Emma both explained advances in cancer treatments that they hope could lead to a cure of the disease — if only more funding was available. They point to the case of Emma Whitehead, a 7-year-old who relapsed with leukemia, and ultimately was saved by a clinical trial treatment that involves the use of T cells.

Whitehead was treated at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the hospital's website tells the story:

"Her T cells would be collected from her blood, then reengineered in a lab to recognize and attach to a protein called CD19 that is found only on the surface of B cells. After this reengineering, the cells are called chimeric antigen receptor T cells. When the reengineered cells are put back into the patient, they disperse throughout the body to find and kill cancerous B cells.

Emily was the first pediatric patient treated in this way, and so far the treatment seems to have gotten rid of the cancer, the website said.

How you can help

Anyone interested in donating to A Patient Helping Patients can send gifts to: Emma Rose, PO Box 485, Thiensville, WI 53092. The organization also has a wish list on Amazon, and receives packages that way often.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here