MEET OUR KIDS

Matt Bentley

February 2004

On September 2, 2000, the day before our twin boys’ 3rd birthday party, our son Matthew was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. A tumor had consumed his entire right lung. In a very aggressive surgery, the tumor and the entire lung were both removed. To ensure that all of the cancerous cells were gone, Matt then had to undergo six months of harsh chemotherapy and three months of radiation.

During that time, Matt spent many overnights in the hospital and countless days in The Tomorrow Fund Clinic. Although Hasbro is a hospital, most of us Tomorrow Fund Families call it the “Hotel Hasbro” because of the way The Tomorrow Fund treats its kids and families. There were days when Matt (and his brothers) couldn’t wait to go to the hospital and days when they didn’t want to leave because of the friends they had made there and the activities that were planned. All this while Matthew was undergoing treatment that would make any adult cry.

Exactly 364 days after Matt’s diagnosis, on the same birthday weekend, the tumor came back. This time it had metastasized on his brain. Matt had a brain tumor.

Because of the size of the tumor, he was operated on immediately. The surgery took several hours and Fred Barbosa, The Tomorrow Fund’s Social Worker, stayed with my husband and I through the entire procedure. Because of Matt’s age and the location of the tumor, radiation was not an option this time, so his doctors decided to follow up with regularly scheduled MRIs and CT scans, with each visit requiring port access in the Clinic.

Then, in November of 2001, the tumor appeared again in the same spot.

This time, a relatively new type of radiation had been decided on – inter-operative radiation. The tumor was resected in January 2002 and radiation was done at the same time. Matthew was the youngest person and the first child ever to have this type of treatment performed. His doctors wanted to make sure this was the last time the tumor would come back, so the decided more chemotherapy would be needed. Six more months of chemo was prescribed, this time with stronger drugs and more in-hospital overnights and Clinic visits.

Matthew is now a happy and healthy 6 year-old little boy, doing all the things 6 year olds do. He is in first grade and played t-ball league last year. This year, he wants to learn how to swim.

Most of his memories of the hospital (and those of his brothers) are not frightful. Most memories almost seem to be happy…memories of all the kind people he met and the interesting things he did. And that is because of everything The Tomorrow Fund did for him and our family. Matthew’s prognosis is guarded but optimistic. Many people we know haven’t been as fortunate as we have been. But through our whole ordeal, The Tomorrow Fund has been with all of us. I don’t know how we could have gone through it by ourselves.

We’ve been helping children with cancer for 20 years!

There is a child with cancer in every city and town in RI and nearby MA who is being helped by The Tomorrow Fund.

Last year, children with cancer spent more than 2,500 nights in Hasbro Children’s Hospital.

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