WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — An organization that has been propping up families battling cancer is celebrating 25 years of service.
Barbara Abernathy is the CEO of Pediatric Oncology Support Team (POST). She's battling cancer herself and has been running POST with a passion for years in Palm Beach County.
"When a child gets cancer, people imagine they go to some far-off place, and get treated somewhere else, but the vast majority of kids are treated right here in our backyard," Abernathy said. "That's where we come in. We wrap our arms around these kids and their families because there is no worse phrase in the English language than 'your child has cancer,' or even worse, 'you're child is not going to survive cancer.'"
The POST team is mostly comprised of volunteers. The group meets families by their bedside and walks them through their cancer journey, from finger pricks to port placement, to doctors' visits to the myriad of medications that need navigating.
"I've been doing this for 25 years and there's no rhyme or reason why things happen the way they do, but our numbers have been going up for sure. They've been steadily climbing since January," Abernathy said. "In fact, we're assisting more than a hundred families right now in our area."
POST is a mostly volunteer group.
One of the families POST assisted will be serving as the event host for the Gold Ribbon Heroes Luncheon at Frenchman’s Reserve Country Club on May 10.
Click here for more information regarding tickets to the event.
