In this blog, I’ll talk a little about gifts for kids with cancer. I’ll discuss how a simple little gift box growing up helped me get through surgeries, procedures, and dreadful chemo.
Gifts for Kids with Cancer: A Gift Box with Mystery Toys
Back in the 80s, going through cancer was rough. It was very rough. I mean, not that cancer is exactly easy now. It’s not.
As a kid, I can remember one time specifically waking up one morning in the hospital at Egleston in Atlanta, Georgia, just like many times before. It was the day of surgery on my abdomen. It would end up being one of three.
Like most kids, I remember dreading the procedure—the needles, the fear, cold operating room. As a result, I developed all sorts of weird coping habits.
For example, one thing I would do was tell myself things like, “The next time I’m home riding on my skateboard, I’ll be done with this surgery,” or “The next time I’m playing football down the street, I’ll be done with this.”
I’d put together many of these “next time” scenarios to distract myself and redirect my focus.
The Perfect Distraction
Other than these weird little habits, there was something else that really helped me get through it all. And, that was a mystery gift box from my grandmother, “Bamba,” and my grandfather.
They would often bring me a care package, that I now call, the Bamba Box gift box. This care package was filled with all sorts of mystery gifts.
I mean, there were games, puzzles, action figures, baseball cards, and my favorite, the parachute man. He was just a little plastic guy with a parachute that you could throw up into the air and watch him float to the ground. He was really simple, but really cool, too.
Most of the time, they’d promise me that my care package would be waiting on me after I got back to the room from my procedure. And, without fail, every time I came back to my room, there they were with my care package.
It may sound very simple to some, but this helped me tremendously. I mean, who would think that a kid headed off to surgery could actually be excited and not scared out of his mind. Of course, by that time, it wasn’t exactly my first rodeo.
Bamba Box Gift Boxes Today
Today, my company, Bamba Box, delivers gift boxes to kids all over the country. It’s not just a gift for kids with cancer either. Bamba Box is a great gift for any kid who needs a better day and a little cheering up.
You can either send a Bamba Box to a kid you know or you can gift a Bamba Box, and we’ll get it to a kid on your behalf.
