COVID-19 Update

These past months of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a whirlwind for everyone and we hope you are doing well and staying healthy. 

With the serious situation that is COVID-19, There Goes My Hero has taken necessary steps to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff and volunteers, while also ensuring the continuation of our mission.  

We have postponed or canceled all in-person bone marrow registry drives until further notice. We have also rescheduled all Hero events through the end of May. We will continue to monitor the situation to evaluate if any further changes are needed, but we have high hopes that our events can stay on over the summer. 

That being said, our staff is still working every day to fulfill our mission: Save lives. Provide hope. Help those impacted by blood cancer. 

With help from our partner DKMS, we have begun hosting virtual drives to continue adding potential life-savers to the bone marrow registry. So far, we have over 10 volunteers hosting virtual drives and encouraging their friends, family, and community to get swabbed. 

We are continuing to support our Hero Fund in partnership with Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center’s Harry J. Duffey Patient and Family Services Program. This fund allows us to help blood cancer patients and their families deal with the unanticipated costs of treatment, including meals, transportation, and parking. So far, our Hero Fund has been able to help 3 patients pay for copays to continue treatment. 

Like many nonprofit organizations, our community partners and supporters are extremely important to us. That is why we have started our #SupportOurSupporters campaign through our social media platforms. This campaign allows us to support our local small businesses that have supported our own efforts in the past, like restaurants, marketing agencies, automotive companies, and telecommunications.

This is a challenging time for everyone, but especially for those battling blood cancer. Chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants leave blood cancer patients with compromised immune systems, which means they have to take extra precautions to avoid COVID-19 and other infections. Social distancing and self-isolation are the best ways to help to flatten the curve. But this also leaves blood cancer patients feeling lonely and isolated. 

For this very reason, we have begun offering “blood cancer mentors” for blood cancer patients and their families. Our Board of Directors is made almost entirely of individuals who have been directly impacted by blood cancer. Some are survivors themselves, while others have had loved ones diagnosed with blood cancer. 

If you need a “blood cancer mentor”, we urge you to reach out to Mary Kaye at mary.kaye@theregoesmyhero.org. We can match you up with someone to talk to, text, and help you during this difficult time.

Our Board and staff have worked hard to make Hero a financially stable organization. Like many of you, we have been fiscally responsible and are currently in a holding pattern budget-wise. We hope this will help us continue to be a vibrant and healthy organization. If you are able and want to make a donation, thank you, but for now, we are all trying to do our best with what we have. Here’s hoping for the day that we can all be together and celebrate Hero and our mission to save lives, provide hope, and help those impacted by blood cancer. 

Thank you for your ongoing support during this time.