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Courtesy of Pinky Swear Foundation
Within days of then-5-year-old Kaleb Klimek’s leukemia diagnosis, an orange envelope arrived in the mail containing gift cards to help the family pay for essential needs. It was a virtual hug from the Pinky Swear Foundation when they needed it most. At one point when Kaleb was hospitalized for six months, the foundation helped the family with a house payment.
For anyone facing a pediatric cancer diagnosis, one fact becomes quickly apparent: Cancer is messy. It upends routines and finances, putting a family’s “normal” life on hold.
Pinky Swear Foundation helps families with everyday expenses, from housing, groceries, gas, and other financial support, to lighten life’s burdens when a medical crisis overwhelms.
“It was a very hard time for Kaleb and for our family,” said Casandra Klimek, Kaleb’s mother. “We had no clue what resources were out there. We had learned about this amazing organization called Pinky Swear, who helped us out financially. Then we were also contacted by Geneva Capital, who gave our family a check.”
A Lonely Journey
Kaleb has been a fighter since day one. Born prematurely in 2014, he spent the first two weeks of his life in the hospital. At a month old, he had heart surgery and spent another three months in the hospital.
His parents were overjoyed when they finally took their first child home and began to live as a family in Miltona, a town in west central Minnesota.
But at age 4, a bloody nose that wouldn’t quit sent Kaleb to the local ER and eventually to St. Cloud Hospital. After days of other treatments, an ear, nose, and throat specialist performed cauterizing surgery to prevent more nose bleeds, and his parents took him home to recover.
It was a short reprieve.
Within a week, his parents noticed what appeared to be bruises on his arms and legs. So, within a month of the nonstop nosebleed, Kaleb and his parents were at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, where specialists in the Cancer and Blood Disorders Clinic considered next steps.
The result: Kaleb was found to have a low blood platelet count, eventually diagnosed as ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura), a condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s platelets.
Because ITP often clears up on its own, the medical team and the Klimeks decided to monitor Kaleb’s condition to see if he improved. He didn’t.
Another Challenge
On his fifth birthday, Kaleb was hospitalized again with multiple nosebleeds, and his parents and medical team decided on a treatment plan that included platelet transfusions.
At the same time Kaleb’s condition was worsening, his parents welcomed a baby girl, Alayna, to the family. In mid-December, Kaleb had a bone marrow biopsy, and on Jan. 2, 2020, the family learned the diagnosis: Kaleb had AML, leukemia.
“In a matter of hours, we went from being happy, living life with two beautiful kids, to living a parent’s worst nightmare,” Cassandra Klimek told a reporter for the Alexandria Echo newspaper in April 2020.
The Klimeks’ experience with pediatric cancer is a typical one—a combination of hope, fear, bad news, new treatments, and financial strain. It can be lonely, exhausting, and frightening. But for families like the Klimeks, there is an organization that understands not only how daunting the pediatric cancer journey is but how to help when it matters most.
Since 2003, Pinky Swear Foundation’s mission has been “helping kids with cancer and their families with financial and emotional support” in honor of Mitch Chepokas. Mitch was 9 when he died of cancer, after asking his dad to make a pinky swear promise to help other families who had a child with cancer.
Taking on Messy
Photo courtesy of Pinky Swear Foundation
The future's looking bright for Kaleb Klimek these days.
September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and Pinky Swear has set September 25 as its first annual daylong event to celebrate its #CancerIsMessy campaign. That day, visitors to the Mall of America in Bloomington can join in making a mess with slime in the TCF Bank Rotunda, and write letters of encouragement to kids with cancer.
Those who prefer to make a mess with family and friends at home are invited to post a photo or video of that mess with the hashtag #CancerIsMessy, and ask others to join the effort with donations to help kids with cancer.
Funds raised on the Annual Day of Mess will be used to help kids with cancer and their families, because a gift for essentials at the right time can make a big difference for families like the Klimeks.
“I have no words to describe how thankful we were to have the huge stressor of how we would manage financially taken away, so we could focus on caring for our family,” Cassandra Klimek said. “We are so grateful for all the help we received. I am pleased to say that Kaleb is now doing great and only needs check-ups every couple of months.”
