2017 Presentation to the Bond University Women’s Network Speak Up Forum on “Resilience and Beyond”
This was a truly wonderful evening for the Super Max & Bryce family. Bryce’s mom, Amy, started the presentation by sharing about her own resilience as she has journeyed through her battle with cancer. She talked about the importance of family as a critical component in building resilience, sharing about her own gratitude for being the person in their family who had cancer, as opposed to all of the families they have met through the Super Max & Bryce project where it is the children who have the disease. She also shared about gifts that can come through even the most difficult of situations with the Super Max & Bryce project as an example of how her family is coping with her continued cancer treatment and the inevitable uncertainty that comes with it.
Every day I am filled with immense gratitude that I was the one with cancer. My heart goes out to the parents of the children we meet. No parent should ever have to watch their child go through this type of battle. This is our way of giving them a small gift - a gift for both the parents and the child - a small night light that brings comfort and all of our love and support with it.
Bryce then spoke about his story and the Super Max & Bryce project. There were tears in the room and comments that the event organisers should have put boxes of tissues in the middle of the tables rather than savory treats and nibbles.
After he spoke, we were once again inundated with support from too many people to count. The love and care that came from each of the people who visited our table to donate and sign cards for the children filled the room with warmth and light. By the end of the event, we raised $585.00 towards our goal of $12,000.00. What an incredible evening. Thank you BUWN members and friends!
One of the most special parts of this event for Bryce's family was the fact that it was a full family event at a place and with people that have a close connection to their hearts.
Bond University holds a clear connection to Bryce’s family. Bryce’s stepdad, George, is an Associate Dean at Bond and Amy is a former Professor at Bond, currently on leave for her cancer treatment but hoping to get back to work at the university she loves and misses as soon as she can. Bryce’s sister, Mariel, who is typically in costume as our amazing turtle, was also there to help. It was most certainly an evening of love, hope and happiness for everyone in the room.