Unity and healing
While the halls of Brigham and Women’s Hospital are always bustling with patients, doctors and staff, like elsewhere in the world, the steady traffic seems to slow at this time of the year as people stop to appreciate one of the hospital’s many towering Christmas trees, or winter scenes, or to fuel up on the seasonal candy jars, which are incessantly tempting.
And like those shoppers on the busy city sidewalks, hospital pedestrians bear packages too, to inspire a “get well” to those recovering or express a “thank you” to the many hospital employees committed to bringing the holidays to the thousands of patients that won’t be home this year.
But how does the magic of the season change for a patient facing a frightening diagnosis, like a brain tumor? Myself, a lucky survivor of a tumor of the CNS, I believe the holiday wish of many patients may very well be the return to a sense of normalcy, which not surprisingly, at this time of the year, comes in the ability to give.
Recently, a patient confirmed my thoughts. While leaving the hospital gift shop she pointed out that “being stuck in the hospital over Christmas wouldn’t stop her from having a surprise up her sleeve” for her many grandchildren that will be stopping by.
Evidently, this insatiable desire to give is the same spirit behind the wonderful social networks, organizations and foundations like the Brain Science Foundation, incepted and supported by patients committed to the joint action of rising and uniting a community and furthering a cause. In my short time supporting the communications needs of the Brain Science Foundation and the BWH Dept. of Neurosurgery, I have just begun to appreciate the greater impact of this relationship beyond its primary purpose of advancing research into primary brain tumors. The dynamic of support, focus and urgency that binds together researchers, doctors, caretakers, patients, donors and the greater staffs at both organizations is a beacon to all involved in this fight against brain tumors. I think I speak on behalf of all of my colleagues when I say, like the holidays, unity and healing is truly what the BSF is about.