76 | HealthLinksSC.com HEALTHLINKS IS PROUD TO PARTNER WITH THESE CHARLESTON AREA NONPROFITS FINDING HOPE AND HEALING NONPROFIT SUPPORTS CHILDREN IMPACTED BY A PARENT’S CANCER For Anna Lonon, founder of The Lonon Foundation, the experience behind the nonprofit’s creation was deeply personal. She and her first husband Mike were college sweethearts who met at the University of South Carolina and moved to Charleston after graduation to launch their careers and build a life together. Mike worked as an engineer and Lonon taught English at the College of Charleston. Those plans were unexpectedly derailed when at age 29, Mike was diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Their son, Jack, was 1 at the time of the diagnosis. Mike fought valiantly for three years but succumbed to the disease on April 7, 2014, when Jack was 4. By this time, they also had a 3-month-old baby, Harker. Lonon described Mike as a thoughtful and kind person, and they would often have conversations while he was sick about how daunting the experience was financially, emotionally and physically, particularly while trying to balance this life-altering diagnosis with the demands of having a young family and a new career. “He would say, ‘if it’s so hard for us, can you imagine what it would be like for folks that have worse insurance or less stable incomes?’ He was always thinking about other people,” recalled Lonon. When Mike passed, Lonon desired to give back in his memory and she worked for a year in the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance’s communications department. “I still wanted to give back, but after a year in that position I just knew I couldn’t do it anymore. It was just too close, too raw, too much,” reflected Lonon. “I wanted to do something that was hopeful and that would focus on empowering people. I knew I wanted to do something for children, mine and others.” That was the impetus for establishing The Lonon Foundation in 2016, a nonprofit that helps children who have been impacted by a parent or caregiver’s cancer diagnosis find comfort, heal and grow from their shared experiences. The first fundraising event the Foundation held was the Hike for Mike (Mike was an avid hiker) which raised $5,000. In 2017, at the recommendation of Mike’s former palliative-care social worker, they started offering monthly events and launched the Uplift program, which provides year-round support By Colin McCandless
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjcyNTM1