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Friends of Karen

Friends of Karen Family Support Program offers emotional and financial support to any family whose child up to the age of 21 has been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.

Emotional support includes home and hospital vista, sibling needs and issues, advocacy with insurance providers and other agencies, education about available resources, collaboration with hospital staff, and holiday, birthday, etc gifts for all the children in the family.

Financial assistance include childcare and travel reimbursement, meals allowance, hospital lodging payment and co-payments to hospitals, medicines, lab fees etc not covered by insurance, as well as household expenses if the financial hardship is due to loss of parent’s income. (Requests for financial assistance are considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account each family’s individual circumstances. One must demonstrate that the financial need is caused by the impact of the child’s illness.)