Jake McGrath passed away from his battle with Leukemia in August of 2019. He was fearless in the face of his battle with cancer, and often said that he was proud that research and treatment for him would go on to benefit other kids. This fund is intended to honor him and his memory by providing donations to the pediatric infusion ward at the Mary Washington Hospital branch of Children's National in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Why this hospital?

Jake was from Fredericksburg. If you're not from the area, the general issue is this: it's almost perfectly equidistant to both Washington, DC and Richmond, VA. Prior to this center opening, pediatric cancer patients have had to commute roughly 50 miles in either direction in order to receive infusions for chemotherapy and other important treatments.

This puts a difficult toll on families. The Northern Virginia region has some of the worst traffic in the nation - a 50 mile drive in this region can be an hour or more on the road. Once you get to the hospital, you may have another wait while getting checked in and set up. After treatment is done, you'll inevitably wait around a bit for monitoring to ensure nothing went wrong. Finally, you drive back in the opposite direction... in rush hour traffic.

How does a family handle this? Our family was fortunate to have had many, many people to share the load - but this isn't always the case for others. In looking to honor Jake's memory, we wanted to try and help solve something that we saw first hand and could make a difference on.

What can we accomplish with this?

By supporting this fund, you empower the Mary Washington branch to provide a level of pediatric service that did not previously exist in the area. Treatments like chemotherapy infusions can be done in a way that fits into family schedules much easier. Families don't have to battle issues like missing work, rising fuel costs, or eating out constantly due to commute times.

In short, help keep families together and strong - in our personal experience, it's one of the most important aspects of treatment.