Nothing can prepare you for the anguish of learning your child has a life-threatening illness. Time screeches to a halt. The world turns upside down.

Nothing can prepare you for the anguish of learning your child has a life-threatening illness. Time screeches to a halt. The world turns upside down. And an overwhelming sense of urgency and fear smothers your dreams for the future as you struggle to help your child find the courage to cope. It’s a waking nightmare, and it’s precisely what sixteen special parents experienced. Their sons and daughters were diagnosed with cancer or a serious blood disorders over twenty-five years ago.

Faced with the harsh reality of these terrible diseases and the desire to relieve their children’s suffering, these remarkable people turned to one another for support. These parents were desperate for simple comforts for their children and themselves at the treatment center. Starting with small changes-books, toys and games to help alleviate the strain of treatment for little ones; coffee, comfortable seating and the solace of others to help reduce the stress for parents-they searched for ways to make each day a little brighter for the children and those who loved them. As their efforts grew, so did their strength. And in time, these parents, once strangers, became friends. Their helplessness, once overpowering, became hope. And their dream, once modest, became the Tomorrows Children’s Fund, a privately funded, non-profit organization dedicated to easing the pain and speeding the healing of children with cancer and serious blood disorders.

From the beginning, the accomplishments of the Tomorrows Children’s Fund exceeded even its biggest believers’ expectations. And with these initial successes came an even more ambitious vision: to create a luminous and loving place where desperately ill children and their families could find hope, healing and happiness in the midst of their crisis.

That dream was realized with the opening of the DON IMUS - WFAN Pediatric Center for Tomorrows Children at Hackensack Medical Center in 1994. This four story, leading-edge facility, is home to the Institute for Pediatric Cancer and Bood Disorders, New Jersey’s premier center for the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cancer and blood disorders. Today, it’s where children from all walks of life come for compassionate, world-class medical care from an expert and comforting staff. The little ones undergoing treatment often linger to finish an art project or learn another magic trick and teenagers pound pinball machines, enjoy music and master video games as hours formerly dreaded now move by quickly. It is Where parents share their hopes, fears and concerns with others who understand their pain.

Together, these extraordinary accomplishments add up to greater hope and healing for children with cancer and blood disorders. Nevertheless, they’re not enough. Though more children than ever are surviving long term without any physical signs of their illness, we will not rest until we achieve our ultimate goal, to conquer these devastating diseases and ensure the total cure that every child deserves.