Hops for Hope Funds Flights
Spectrum Local News | Author | HEATHER FORDHAM | WAKE COUNTY | PUBLISHED 10:45 AM ET SEP. 08, 2022
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Amber Lunn, 10, is a recipient of Children's Flight of Hope.
Amber Lunn after she had her right eye removed due to bilateral retinoblastoma. (Credit: Amanda Lunn)
Family shares how N.C. nonprofit made a lifesaving difference in childhood cancer fight
RALEIGH, N.C. — A nonprofit in North Carolina is helping children in need of special medical treatment get to the right doctors, even if they're hundreds of miles away.
What You Need To Know
Children's Flight of Hope is a North Carolina nonprofit organization
The organization provides air transportation for kids in need of special medical treatment
Hops for Hope is Sept. 10 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Raleigh
Amber Lunn is childhood cancer survivor
“The best part is hearing their laughs while I’m inside, and they experience childhood as I do, ”
For Amber Lunn, her big sister Ashley and their best friend Chloe, at least for a brief second, jumping on the trampoline can feel like flying. The middle schoolers have spent nearly every day playing together after school for the last three years.
Looking back nine years ago to 2013, the Lunns didn't know if they'd see the day of their daughters playing together.
“In 2013, there was a day everything was OK, then in a moment, I wasn’t even sure if she was going to survive,. ”
At 23 months old, Amber was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of childhood eye cancer known as bilateral retionblastoma. Only about 200 to 300 children are diagnosed with retinoblastoma each year in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. "Since she was about 2 weeks old, I saw a white glow in her eye, and I didn't realize that was a warning sign, that is not normal in humans, I spoke up about it at our well visits, but it was never present then because it would come and go," Lunn said.
After a visit with a pediatric optomologist, Lunn said they decided to find a doctor who specialized in treating this specific type of eye cancer.
Amber Lunn after she got her prosthetic eye implant. (Credit: Amanda Lunn)
"We could go to Duke or we could go to another hospital that was farther away. We started here locally because it was more convenient, but they wanted to do six rounds of systemic chemotherapy, only the first two would actively kill or shrink the tumor, and then after that it would hold them steady," Lunn said.
Through community efforts, Lunn found the best doctor for the job at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City. The catch: it was almost 500 miles each way to get there. "In the beginning, we were going every four weeks through chemotherapy and various check-ups," Lunn said. "It was trying, I had one 2-year-old and one 1-year-old. We both had jobs, trying to manage finances and going back and forth to the doctor."
That's when Children's Flight of Hope stepped in. The nonprofit organization is based in North Carolina and offers air transportation to kids in need of specialized medical care across the country. They fly patients and their caregivers to treatments throughout the duration of their medical journey.
The Lunns have been recipients of about 40 flights through Children's Flight of Hope.
