Skip to main content
Clear icon
80º

KSAT Community Giving Tuesday: Transplants for Children

Help support nonprofits during COVID-19

Giving Tuesday

SAN ANTONIO – Our local nonprofits in San Antonio need help from the community now more than ever due to COVID-19 affecting its daily operations.

With an overwhelming response from the community, 36 nonprofit organizations reached out to KSAT Community to be potentially featured for Wishlist Wednesday.

Recommended Videos



Instead of highlighting one nonprofit for Wishlist Wednesday this week, KSAT Community will be hosting Giving Tuesday to help 36 organizations.

If you would like to learn more about how Transplants for Children needs support during the pandemic, please see below on the Q&A from the nonprofit.

Q. What is the mission/goal of the nonprofit?

A. Transplants for Children assists children and families in mastering the lifelong challenges of pediatric organ transplantation.

Q. How does the nonprofit help the community?

A. Founded in 1986 by Sharon and Eric Sutton, Transplants for Children (TFC) has worked tirelessly to bring hope to families nationwide. Sharon and Eric’s infant son, Richard, received a liver transplant when organ transplantation was still in its infancy. In spite of the transplant and subsequent hospitalization, Richard passed away. The Suttons were inspired to honor his memory by forming an organization dedicated to assisting other families through the pediatric transplant process. Children who receive transplants embark on a lifelong journey of constant health vigilance, financial and social acceptance insecurity, mental health issues and range of other challenges.

Together with their families, children must navigate these new overwhelming challenges in an often-confusing medical system. TFC provides critical and specialized support every step of the way, from infancy into early adulthood, for transplant children and their families with services that include emergency funds, family support, and peer networks. Today, TFC serves more than 1,500 families annually and has supported more than 4,500 families since its inception.

Q. How has COVID-19 impacted your nonprofit?

A. Transplants for Children serves an extremely vulnerable population of pediatric organ transplant recipients and their families. We have reworked our programs to maintain support for mental and physical health during this challenging time. We expect our Family Emergency Assistance program needs to continue to grow at a dramatic rate.

This program provides crisis financial assistance for medical treatment and medication co-pays as well as food, rent/mortgage, travel costs for treatment and care with the goal of ensuring that the families we support should not have to decide between food, housing and life-saving medications and care to stay alive. In-short, the need for this fund has rapidly increased and will continue to do so. Each request for support made to this program truly is a matter of life or death.

Q. What type of donations do you need?

A. Currently, our greatest need is funding dollars for our Family Emergency Assistance Program helping our families in financial crisis to ensure they can pay for the complex medications required to sustain the life of their post organ transplant child(ren).

Q. Do you need volunteers?

A. Not at this time.

Q. How can the community help?

A. Go online to tfcsatx.org and make a donation to support the highly vulnerable immunocompromised children we serve.

Website:

tfcsatx.org

Facebook page:

facebook.com/TransplantsforChildren

Address:

11107 Wurzbach Road, Suite 202, San Antonio, TX 78230

Related:

Share your appreciation for our community: Send a frontline worker a virtual message

To see the full list of KSAT Community Giving Tuesday nonprofits featured, click here.

KSAT Community operates in partnership with University Health System, Energy Transfer and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union.


About the Author
Kiersten Ehr headshot

Kiersten has been a Digital Content Creator with KSAT12 since 2017. She graduated from Texas State University with an electronic media degree and previously worked for the Spurs Sports & Entertainment.

Loading...

Recommended Videos