“I was diagnosed with leukemia an hour before I turned 13, which was a fantastic birthday present,” Nick recalled with a sarcastic chuckle.
“One of the hospital’s child life specialists heard. He came back five minutes after meeting me and gave me a baseball autographed by Willie Mays.” A much better birthday present, indeed.
Smiles broke out around the room at the Bing Concert Hall on the Stanford campus. Nick was onstage, surrounded by members of the Lucile Salter Packard Society (LSPS) — donors who have committed a planned gift to Packard Children’s through their estate.
“It was things like that, making sure I had the games and movies that I wanted, and making sure that my stay in the hospital was as easy and positive as it could be.”
Nick continued to tell the audience about the many supportive services that he and his family received at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. From tutoring at the Hospital School to help him keep at grade level with his friends, to a parent support group that helped his family manage his care—the entire family was wrapped in support by Packard Children’s compassionate staff.
He also shared about the world-class medical treatment he received at the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases.
“I was never an easy patient,” Nick said, describing the complexity of his care. He described a time when his medical team quickly caught a serious side effect called hemoglobin anemia—his body was not producing enough red blood cells to function properly. Their swift action quickly identified the problem and got him the treatment he needed.
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Speaking to the crowd, Nick was no longer the child who endured over 30 blood transfusions. He was a young man, launching his adult life and career. His family was in attendance, cheering him on from the front row.
“I graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2023 with a business administration degree,” Nick said, “And, I just became a certified public accountant.”
Nick’s voice filled with gratitude as he told his story.
“The gift you guys give is life,” he said, looking across the donors in the crowd. “I very easily may not be here if it wasn’t for the generosity of people like you. You help people like me live the life that every kid with cancer deserves to live.”
