Welcome
Diagnosis and treatment can overwhelm a family, forcing them to forget that patient is still a person. A mother who was crying at a QFAD party because she had forgotten about the little girl behind the disease best exemplifies this point. She said since the diagnosis, she had only been able to see her daughter as a child with cancer. The QFAD party showed her that her daughter was still a little girl—her little girl. Numerous patients have undergone a personality transformation during QFAD events. From being tired and shy, to dancing and sharing their new make-over with anyone in sight, children revel in the joy of their youth.
A teenager received a special QFAD party for herself and five friends in the last week of her life. After the party, she wrote a letter to her parents telling them not to be afraid or sad when she passed. She also requested to be buried wearing her tiara. On the opposite spectrum of this testament, a QFAD participant survived her cancer and is now volunteering with her local chapter. These two examples exemplify the change of the children’s outlook.
Our services are considered therapeutic play and are aimed at cancer patients across the nation. According to Play Therapy International, therapeutic play has shown to create a positive change in 71% of children. Hospitalizations cause children to deal with physical and emotional distress in an strange, and at times uncomfortable setting. Further research documented in Pediatric Nursing has shown that therapeutic play created a positive response in hospitalized children. Through therapeutic play, children are able to better adjust to the hospital experience.
Cancer affects one in every 300 hundred boys and one in every 333 girls before the age of twenty, leading to a large population of children with cancer. The incidence for childhood cancer is highest in the first year of life, when a child’s physical and emotional being is at its most delicate stage. Just as cancer spans the spectrum color, socio-economic status, geographic location, race, gender, and all other classifiers, so do our services.
Although fun and playful, QFAD's programming supplies a valid accompaniment to traditional medical treatment. As a volunteer, you will find the energy will lift your spirits as well as the patient's.
We invite you to experience and spread the magic of Queen for a Day.
We invite you to experience and spread the magic of Queen for a Day.
Contact us:
JEdwards@QFAD.org
Phone: 646-875-5805
Fax: 888-405-QFAD (7323)
