Naperville Family Helps Children and Teens Fighting Cancer

A Naperville Family is giving to kids fighting cancer. Charlie (age 8) and Sadie (age 2) shopped with the aim of benefitting the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation in a big way during the month of December. Charlie and Sadie are the grandchildren of Treasure Chest supporter, Mr. Phil Finn who passed away six years ago today on December 30, 2014.

Me’Chele Finn had this to say “This holiday season our children wanted to do something to make other little kids happy. Donating toys to the Treasure Chest Foundation, an organization that meant so much to their grandfather Phil Finn, was the perfect way to do just that.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 14,600 young cancer patients in 61cancer treatment centers in 20 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. Colleen Kisel founded the organization in 1996 after her then seven-year-old son Martin had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. Ms. Kisel discovered that giving her son a toy after each procedure provided a calming distraction from his pain, noting that when children are diagnosed with cancer their world soon becomes filled with doctors, nurses, chemotherapy drugs, surgeries and seemingly endless painful procedures. Martin celebrated his 27th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of 2020.

If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s web site at www.treasurechest.org.