Cancer can cost a lot for patients and their families, in out-of-pocket costs, long hours spent in treatment and the emotional toll of fighting a serious disease.
Beyond the obvious costs, there can be smaller, less immediately evident ones, as well.
For example: parking fees.
Matsie Bosmans, a Columbia resident and senior at Atholton High School, realized the financial impact a seemingly trivial expense like parking can have on families while receiving treatment at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore.
"A lot of these families are here for months on end," said Bosmans, who has been in treatment for the past 10 months. At $12 a day, the expense can quickly add up.
The cost of gas for trips to and from the hospital can be steep, as well, Bosmans said.
"A lot of the families live out of state and they travel five hours one way, every single week, to get the medicine their kid needs," because Hopkins is sometimes the only hospital in the region that offers certain medicines and treatments, she said. "Those expenses seem like a small thing that no one would really know about or think about, but they're not."
So Bosmans, 17, decided to do what she could to help ease some of the financial burden that transportation creates for families at the hospital. In conjunction with the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant with a location in Columbia, she organized and hosted a fundraiser to collect money for a gas card and parking sticker fund.
The event, held Jan. 22, was called "Flappers, Fellas and Fondue" and featured a 1920's theme. Bosmans, her family, friends, Hopkins doctors and fellow patients dressed up in shiny dresses, pearls and furry shawls and participated in activities such as a silent auction and a balloon pop, where for $5 attendees could buy a prize-filled balloon to burst.
Some 200 people made reservations for the night, which ended up raising $3,000 for Bosmans' cause, she said.
The fondue fundraiser wasn't the first time Bosmans has tried to brighten the lives of cancer patients in the pediatric oncology ward at Hopkins.
This past December, she started "Matsie's Lights of Love," a project that delivered gift bags filled with a strand of colorful Christmas lights, winter crafts and a handwritten note to kids spending the holidays in the hospital.
Though Bosmans started with a goal of packing 20 gift bags, "it ended up being much larger and more successful than I imagined," she said.
The gift bags brought patients together: "When you're staying in-patient, you're in your room" and don't cross paths with other patients very often, Bosmans said. With the "Lights of Love" project, patients began to post pictures – one little girl even recorded a video to show relatives overseas her decorated room – and make connections. "It was really remarkable," she said.
Though Bosmans doesn't have immediate plans for another fundraiser – the Melting Pot event took months to plan and advertise – she said she wants to continue to collect money to help fellow patients. She wants to turn Lights of Love into a project to deliver a gift bag for all new pediatric cancer patients.
Anyone interested in helping can write a check to Johns Hopkins to designate to the transportation fund or Lights of Love program.
Bosmans said she's been impressed with the generosity of her community so far.
"I think the one thing that's been really incredible about this whole thing is that none of it would have been successful without people's willingness to help other people and doing it consistently throughout the year," she added. "That is just one thing that I think has been really amazing to see."