“Prescription of Hope”

Mitchell‘s Fund serves as a broad resource of support for families facing challenging pediatric illnesses. It also helps advocate for greater community education about how to support families coping with life-changing circumstances. “Prescription of Hope with Mitchell‘s Fund” is the inaugural luncheon event designed to bring awareness to the wide-ranging issues related to pediatric illness. The event program will feature opening comments by Mitchell‘s Mom, Meg McElwain. Meg will use Mitchell‘s 45-foot-long strand of “Beads of Courage” (www.beadsofcourage.org) as a visual while she shares her family‘s story of Mitchell‘s valiant battle with cancer. The program also features a video that will reveal little-known facts about the critical roles of nurses and child life staff in a children‘s hospital. While nurses are trained to administer medication and doctor‘s orders, they very often provide emotional support in the most unassuming ways to a family or child in medical crisis. Child life specialists also work closely with children and families, offering emotional support and helping families develop coping strategies. With a background in child development, psychology and counseling, child life specialists also help explain medical jargon to kids and prepare them for procedures. There is no cost to attend the luncheon. Guests will be asked to make a meaningful, tax-deductible financial donation at the end of the event. Meg McElwain and Frank Turner, III, established The Mitchell Bays Turner Pediatric Fund in 2012 in honor of their son, Mitchell, who was diagnosed when he was three months old with a rare form of Infant Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. “Mitchie,” as he was affectionately called, died April 13, 2014, just days after his second birthday from liver and kidney failure caused by the chemotherapy and antibiotic medications he took to fight the disease.