Foundation helps families battling childhood cancer

HAYS COUNTY — Hearing that your child has cancer is heartbreaking for parents.

Heather Keiler-Green and Ben Fest want to help families of children who are fighting cancer — a battle that they know all too well — through The Phoenix Stone Foundation. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit was created to honor and carry on the courageous fight of their son, Phoenix, against childhood cancer.

Phoenix had Stage 4 high-risk Neuroblastoma, which is a rare type of cancerous tumor of the nerve cells that almost always affects children, according to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, and accounts for 7-10% of childhood cancers. He was diagnosed when he was only 17 months old in January 2016.

“It was about 19 months that he battled [cancer],” Keiler-Green said. “He passed away just a few days before his third birthday and that was in August 2017.”

Shortly after Phoenix’s death, Keiler-Green and Fest felt a calling to help families who are going through a similar situation they did.

“We did always have it on our heart that when he was finished with treatment, we wanted to continue giving back but when we knew that we were going to lose him, we felt a very strong call from God that we were going to continue on the fight even without Phoenix here with us,” Keiler-Green said. “We made our first delivery to the hospital on his birthday, which was six days after losing him. We brought food, balloons and everything to the hospital. That was our first delivery and we have been going now serving others for five and a half years.”

The following outreach programs are offered through the foundation.

• PS We Love You: Performing random acts of kindness that honor Phoenix's memory and raise awareness about the foundation.

• Lovely Day Delivery: Weekend relief in the form of coffee and a light breakfast treat to the patients, families and staff.

• Holidays at the Hospital: Helps families have a memorable holiday or birthday at the hospital such as decorating a room for Christmas or holiday, filling the room with balloons for a birthday or bringing cupcakes.

• Heroes at Home: Families with children who have recently been diagnosed with cancer can request a customized kit of useful items that will put their minds at ease about being at home with an immunocompromised child (laundry detergent, paper towels, etc.)

• Heroes on Hospice: Provides these families with a gift card to be used for gas or groceries during this heartbreaking time. Gift cards are given to the families through the social workers at Dell Children's Hospital/ Children's Blood and Cancer Center.

• Admission Day Support: Provides a restaurant gift card to families who are checking into 4 North at Dell Children's Hospital. This little gift takes away some small bit of the stress of going into the hospital for an extended period of time.

• Scan Day Support: Families of patients undergoing scans at Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin can contact the foundation and they will provide an e-gift card that you can use to grab a Starbucks coffee before the scan, or wait and use it for a treat on the way home. Gift cards can be from from Starbucks, Amy's Ice Cream, Panera Bread, Five Guys or Chipotle.

• Bone Marrow Transplant Support: Patients undergoing this treatment are required to stay in the hospital for weeks and sometimes months at a time, and they are often so immunocompromised that they are virtually in isolation. A "BMT Support" bag can help provide some comfort and joy in the midst of this great trial. Inside are personalized gifts that can help brighten the days in such long hospital stays.

The foundation currently serves Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin and Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, which are the two hospitals where Phoenix received treatment. It’s not new for families who live in Hays County to be forced to travel to larger cities to receive treatment, especially for children.

“You can get adult cancer treatment in town, but pediatric is more specialized,” Fest said. “It’s far more rare and underfunded. Like your national cancer funding that comes from the government, only 4% goes to childhood cancer because it’s so rare. It’s harder to come by.”

Community Support

Contributed Photo
Kyle’s Bright Beginnings Learning Center donated $1,000 to The Phoenix Stone Foundation. From left, August Keiler Green and Heather Keiler-Green stand with Alice Bradley and Stacey Dees of Kyle’s Bright Beginnings.[/caption]

The Phoenix Stone Foundation has started to build a network of community support from friends, family members, Fellowship Church of Plum Creek and local businesses.

Kyle's Bright Beginnings Learning Center recently donated $1,000 to the foundation as part of the nationally acclaimed “Week of the Young Child,” which celebrates early learning, young children, their teachers, families and communities.

“We believe that it takes an influential village to ensure that all young children are provided the best quality care and education. The Phoenix Foundation is part of that influential village as advocates of children's families dealing with difficult circumstances,” said Alice Bradley, owner of Kyle's Bright Beginnings Learning Center. “Because of this belief, advocating for young children is our greatest purpose; thus, my husband and I testified to the Texas Budget Committee imploring them to do their job by allocating only 1% of the State surplus funds ($2.3 Billion) to fund the childcare sector. Doing so would significantly alleviate the business staffing shortages and propel the economic opportunities for families of young children.”

“As a four-star rated quality early learning center and the Best of North Hays County winners, we stand committed to facilitating the economic growth opportunities taking place in Texas by encouraging parents to go to work knowing their children are in good hands and that they can afford the quality education provided by professional teachers of early learning throughout Texas,” she added. “What an amazing legacy for the future, right?”

Another way the community can support the foundation’s mission is by donating blood. We Are Blood has been hosting blood drives, which are typically held at Fellowship Church, with the foundation for the past five years.

“We Are Blood is honored to partner with the Phoenix Stone Foundation, whose blood drives have collected close to 200 donations for local patients in Central Texas,” said Nick Canedo, vice president of community engagement at We Are Blood. “We are grateful to play a small role in honoring Phoenix’s memory while helping pediatric patients receive lifesaving transfusions.”

We Are Blood is the sole provider of blood, platelets and plasma for patients at every hospital in the 10-county service area in Central Texas, including Hays County. It’s the provider of blood to every St. David’s HealthCare hospital, Ascension Seton (including Dell Children’s) and Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Central Texas.

The next blood drive will be on June 10.

To learn more on how you can support The Phoenix Stone Foundation’s mission, visit .

Follow the foundation on Instagram at or on Facebook at .