By: Mikaela Hong, 17, Neuroblastoma
School is one of the most important parts of childhood. It’s not just where kids learn; it’s also where friendships are formed, routines take shape, and self-esteem grows. After fighting cancer for the past seven years, I have experienced how much an illness can impact these crucial experiences that take place in school.
In October of fifth grade, I was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma. Suddenly, I wasn’t beside my classmates during math or talking with friends during recess. Instead, I was thrown into a world of IVs, chemotherapy, nausea, and conversations no ten-year-old should ever have to hear.
Despite all of that, I was still lucky. My fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Lloyd, heard I needed a homeschool teacher. She quietly volunteered to tutor me at home after finishing her own full day of teaching. She patiently tutored me, adjusting all the lessons depending on my fluctuating energy each day. She filled me in on what was happening at school, even bringing notes and photos from my classmates. Because of Ms. Lloyd’s dedication, I could stay as connected to school as a kid with cancer could be.
Ms. Lloyd’s sacrifice and commitment made a profound impact on me because her gentle but insistent encouragement to stay focused on my schoolwork sent the most valuable message to my ten-year-old self: “You still have a future worth educating yourself for.”
For a sick kid, hope can be as simple as a tutor showing up consistently, finally understanding a complicated lesson or being treated like a student with potential instead of just another patient with a diagnosis.
My education has given me that kind of hope. If I study, I can master a lesson. If I work hard, I can finish a project. Unlike my cancer, I still have some control over how I do in school. There’s a sense of progress and a future I can still work toward.
This is why I started the Pediatric Hope Project. It began with a simple thought: there had to be other kids who needed the kind of support I had been lucky enough to receive. Through conversations with other families experiencing childhood cancer, I learned that while schools often wanted to help, they could not always provide enough support. Some students missed weeks, months, or even years of school. Others were too exhausted to keep up, lost touch with friends, and had families who wanted and couldn’t have private, unaffordable tutoring.
At first, I just wanted to connect a few students with friends I knew who might be willing to tutor. I was more worried about finding tutors than finding students. I wondered who would commit to showing up every week for a child they had never met? I reached out to older students I knew, family friends, and college students. To my surprise, many said yes.
The early days were full of trial and error. I did not know how to code or have the means to hire anyone, but I created a website so families could register for a tutor. To get the word out, I searched the internet for contact information for social workers, nonprofit organizations, and child life specialists. Through countless Zoom calls and email exchanges, I tried to spread the word about our services to families who needed them most.
It was worth it. Each match between a student and a tutor means one more family feeling seen and one more child getting support they need to keep learning while going through treatment. One dad told us his son had lost touch with many friends after being diagnosed and leaving school. His tutor became not just a tutor, but a friend he looked forward to seeing every week. Another parent told us that their daughter’s tutoring sessions helped her regain confidence in the classroom after many absences due to illness.
These messages reminded me that the Pediatric Hope Project’s work goes beyond academic support. While tutors review missed lessons and help with homework, they are also there to listen about favorite books, hard days, pets, dreams, and all the ordinary things that make a child feel like themselves again.
Today, the Pediatric Hope Project provides free, weekly virtual tutoring and mentorship for children with cancer and other serious illnesses, as well as their siblings. We are now serving families across more than 43 states and 9 countries, with over 600 registered college and postgraduate tutors, 30 university chapters, and more than 300 students receiving weekly support.
This journey has not been easy, but every challenge has reminded me why the Pediatric Hope Project matters. I received educational support that helped me hold onto hope and my identity during cancer. The Pediatric Hope Project is my way of paying that support forward, so other children and families do not have to face this battle alone.
No child should have to fall behind because they are fighting to heal, no sibling should feel invisible, and no young person should ever feel like cancer gets to decide what they can still become.