Moms Know Best: Lucas’ mom, Stephanie

When her son Lucas had to receive chemotherapy as an in-patient at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, his mom, Stephanie, made it fun by telling him he would get special alone time with her at the sleepover. 

It was Stephanie’s way of helping her son through some of the difficult times of treatment for medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor.  

“If I was excited to go sleep at St. Jude, he was excited, and everything was a new adventure that we were going to explore,” Stephanie said. 

Stephanie said she tries to enjoy every moment with Lucas, 6, a kindergartener and his younger brother. Before Lucas was diagnosed, she said she spent too much time worrying about him reaching certain developmental and educational milestones. She also worried over the future. Now, she said, she’s about figuring things out when they need to be figured out.  

“That is the biggest thing that has changed, my outlook,” she said. “He is here with me laughing and playing. I just stopped worrying about all this technical stuff.” 

Stephanie said mothers whose children are facing cancer or other life-threatening illnesses should also take time for themselves to regroup. 

“If it’s 30 minutes of walking outside by yourself to clear your mind, I would try to do whatever I could to ground myself during all that time,” she said. 

She added that she could always count on other St. Jude moms for support.  

“They gave me hope, because if they could do it, then we can keep going,” Stephanie said.

Read more about Lucas here.