Five years ago at this time I was hugely pregnant anticipating the arrival of our first son, Jack. We were excited to meet our little boy, but honestly nothing could have prepared us for some of the struggles of his first year of life.

What we didn’t know was that our son would be born with a congenital birth defect, a giant melanocytic nevus, a very large pre-cancerous mole that covered 80% of his back.

We didn’t know that he would need an MRI, two planned surgeries, an unplanned surgery and a struggle through a five-day long battle with a staph infection.

Had we known all that before his birth, I would have certainly broken down, “I can’t handle that. Please, not us."

But the thing is we did handle it, we made it through thanks to the support of our family and friends and the skilled care of the Doctors, Nurses and Child Life staff at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

During our time there I was struck by this mini-world within our world that I had no idea existed. The specialized care, the knowledgeable staff, the thoughtfulness of the Child Life programing and spaces like Molly's Place and David's House-there were so many details in place: a safety net just waiting to catch families like ours.

We benefited from that safety net physically and emotionally.

[Tweet ".@chadkids is the safety net for families with hurting children. Help continue the care #donatetoday #chadkids #chadhero"]

You never know when you’ll find yourself in a personal crisis...

..but when you are in that circumstance and you realize there are people whose job and mission in life is simply to help, you can’t help but be incredibly grateful and moved to help in return.

For the past four years I’ve run either the CHaD HERO 5K or Half Marathon and fundraised for CHaD because I want that safety net to be there for other families.

There are so many facets that go into a hospital stay at CHaD and most of the care is funded by donor dollars.

[Tweet "Help @runfargirl reach her fundraising goal for @chadkids and provide care for families who need it most #chadkids #chadhero #beahero"]

What I’ve seen over the years is that small donations add up to really big sums of money, all it takes is one person who is willing to “rally” people to give. Hopefully I can be that person to rally YOU to give a small donation.

So I'm asking YOU to help me reach my goal of raising $1000 for CHaD kids.

If you want to give to help make sure the safety net that CHaD provides is there for other families like ours, please head to my donation page and donate today.

Donate HERE.

-Sarah

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Help Support CHaD Kids: a safety net for families in crisis

You never know when you’ll find yourself in a personal crisis...

For the past four years I’ve run either the CHaD HERO 5K or Half Marathon and fundraised for CHaD because I want that safety net to be there for other families.

So I'm asking YOU to help me reach my goal of raising $1000 for CHaD kids.

Donate HERE.

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