JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Devon Still is a former NFL defensive tackle who played for the Cincinnati Bengals. He's used to tackling the most determined opponents and winning. But in 2014, Still found himself facing a situation that he'd never imagined. His 4-year-old daughter, Leah, had cancer. His first reaction was shock.
DEVON STILL: Like, this can't be my daughter. This can't be my life. I was just playing in the NFL. Everything was great.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
He says friends and family offered support, words of encouragement, but sometimes they missed the mark.
STILL: And they would say, like, everything happens for a reason. And to me, while I know there was good intentions behind it, it felt dismissive of how I truly felt.
KELLY: But he found solidarity in waiting rooms with other parents who were dealing with similar emotions, which is where today's installment of Here to Help, our series focused on community and service, goes next.
STILL: We sat on that cancer floor in a hospital with so many other families who were going through the same things.
KELLY: So earlier this year, when Devon Still heard about a new program that offers support for parents like him, he used his platform to spread awareness about it. It is called the Hopeful Hearts Peer Mentor Program, run by the nonprofit Cancer Hope Network. It connects parents coping with a child's cancer diagnosis and treatment with volunteer mentors who have been through the same thing.
LEE GRIER: Being able to talk to someone that's been there and is at the other end I think just is a lifeline for some families, for some parents.
SUMMERS: That's Lee Grier from Greenfield Township, Pennsylvania. She has a 13-year-old daughter whose cancer is in remission. As a volunteer, she offers a listening ear to other parents in the program.
GRIER: Having the ability to then guide someone and know maybe not everything that they're feeling, but knowing a lot of where they're at, it's a gift that we've been given.
KELLY: Chrissy Thomas is another volunteer mentor from Madison, Virginia, who recalls what it was like when her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in 2021.
CHRISSY THOMAS: I could not bring myself to say the word cancer. I think it was just the sigma of the word. It was scary. And I didn't know what was going to happen. Reaching that remission and getting her to the end of treatment and ringing that bell, it was huge. When I ran across Hopeful Hearts on Facebook, I was like, this is what I can do to give back. This is where I can start.
KELLY: Thomas remembers the first time she called a parent whose child had just started treatment.
THOMAS: We actually talked for probably about an hour. You know, I gave the parent the floor. Having that network of people who know exactly what you're feeling and how you're feeling it, it's really important.
SUMMERS: As for Devon Still, his daughter is now 15 and cancer free. And he appreciates that volunteers can offer support for all possible outcomes in fighting cancer, even the worst.
STILL: It's a long journey. There's the diagnosis, there's in between, and hopefully, there's a remission. But for a lot of families, it's accepting that their child has passed away. And to be knowledgeable and understanding each part of that journey, it's really important to supporting families.
KELLY: Lee Grier puts it this way.
GRIER: We can't change the path of what's going to happen, but we can be there to support families as they're walking it.
KELLY: You can find more stories of volunteerism in America at npr.org/heretohelp. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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