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The Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center honored Annike, Gabriella and Jack Johnson during the hospital’s One Hundred, an annual event held to celebrate 100 individuals and organizations around the world for playing important roles in the battle against cancer.
The three children were living in Dubai with their father Jeff Johnson in 2013, when he experienced his second recurrence of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in three years. After Johnson traveled back to Massachusetts General for treatment, his kids, who stayed in Dubai with their mother, decided to organize an event to help their father and other cancer patients.
They devised the Thinking of You Day. Together, they raised more than $3,000 from their elementary-school classmates and their families for a fund that the Johnson’s parents had established at Massachusetts General. This money provides lymphoma patients with transportation to and from treatment, medical supplies, grocery cards, and other daily needs.
The Johnson children also gathered more than 400 students to wear Red Sox colors in honor of their father and other Boston cancer patients. Classmates also made more than 300 cards to display and give to cancer patients in Boston.
The Johnson children spoke to their classmates about cancer awareness and shared their experience with facing their father’s illness.
The kids led this event as a surprise to their father.
“Our children are just normal kids; however, they have had to deal with the ups and downs of my illness for the past three and a half years, which represents a good portion of their lives,” said Jeff in a press release. “They have demonstrated so much love and compassion, not only toward me, but to other patients as well, and have shown and learned such strength, which will hopefully benefit them later in life.”
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