Story Published:
Mar 24, 2009 at 3:22 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Mar 24, 2009 at 3:45 PM CDT
WEST PLAINS, Mo. -- Nobody wants cancer for Christmas but that's what a 10-year-old boy got. Fortunately, his mom works for a guardian angel who excels at multi-tasking!
“With this, they do a lot of chemo. It makes you tired,” said Jace Harring, a cancer survivor.
It’s a good thing that Jace has an agent. Diana Chadwick sells insurance but is an agent of change.
“Inaction is not acceptable, we had to help his family,” said Chadwick.
“She takes care of everybody,” said Jay Harring, Jace’s father.
Chadwick can answer the hard questions quickly.
“What do we do now? How do we get through this? how do we pay for this?
The day that Jace was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Chadwick became a taxi service, and took him and his family straight to St. Jude's hospital in Memphis for proper treatment on Christmas Eve 2008. She played Santa Claus for Jace's family so they could celebrate between hospital runs.
She also converted her home into a hotel for Jace's siblings so they had a place to stay while their parents were away, and rounded up $16,000 in cash from community fundraisers for bills and paychecks.
Chadwick accepts no credit or accolades.
“The real hero is Jace, not me and the people who helped,” she said.
Chadwick would have us all know that we only pass this way once.
“He needed all of the help he could get and, if you just try, you will have success,” said Chadwick.