Faced with his mom’s cancer battle, 10-year-old Austin Clithero of Dover has launched an effort with his Marshwood youth football team called Hawks for Hope, supplying items for patients in cancer treatment at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital.
The fourth-grader and his teammates collect donations to create “chemo care kits,” which are stored at WDH for patients.
“Teams brought in donations, and it just made my heart feel warm that people were recognizing people with cancer,” Austin said. “If you make a donation, in your body you have a cell of empathy. And that acts like a chain reaction so that everybody has (empathy) in them that can make somebody’s day, or just make somebody feel like they matter.”
Alex Clithero, Austin’s mom, said she’s a five-year “cancer warrior,” and has undergone her treatment at WDH. She said she’s currently battling cancer for a third time. She said she had breast cancer twice, with “back-to-back diagnoses, and now it’s metastasized to my skin, so we’re doing all the things.”
Austin said “it’s hard, for sure,” but he gets through it knowing there are nurses who help his mom and make her feel better.
I’m “just really proud of this guy for finding a way to take a terrible situation and gain some control around making it feel a little bit better for him, but also giving back to his community,” said Alex Clithero. “I’m in awe of his every single day. Unfortunately, this is half of his life he’s been trying to manage having a mom who is fighting cancer, and he has taken it on for sure in some scary moments and some sad moments, but he has turned them all into something very powerful.”
10-year-old making a difference
Austin said the idea for chemo care kits came up at football practice and at home games. It started last October during Breast Cancer Awareness month.
“Another mom approached me in August and asked if I could help her, sort of launch this idea that she had. Cancer had touched her heart and her family, too,” Alex Clithero said. “And so, as somebody in it, she was like ‘I would really love to know what’s going to make your journey easier. When you go in for chemo what’s going to help make the experience not feel so heavy and hard?’”
Alex said a list of care kit items was created, and she connected with the oncology nurses at WDH. Players and cheerleaders from the Marshwood team and all their opponents in October made donations.
What items are in the care kits ‘store’ at WDH?
The chemo care kits “store,” located at the hospital, features items like tote bags, water bottles, tissues, socks, hats, coloring books and activities, Austin said. There are self-care items, too, such as skincare products, deodorant and shower steamers. Nurses help provide them to patients.
Alex Clithero shared her gratitude for the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute at WDH and the way the staff supported her and “embraced” Austin and Hawks for Hope. She said the effort has received positive feedback from patients.
Austin has challenged himself to spread Hawks for Hope’s message to all the sports he plays. This includes an upcoming “hit-a-thon” fundraiser with the Marshwood baseball program. He also helped facilitate a pancake breakfast at his school, raising more than $1,000, he said.
“It’s great to see the youth sports program take this on as a community service effort,” Alex Clithero said. “It just started as a conversation on the sidelines at practice, and now it has turned into an effort to really bring in leadership skills, responsibility to our community, service projects.”
Donations are being accepted by Venmo to AlexClithero.
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat. Reporting by Sarah Donovan.
