Picture this: You’re doing well in both your professional and family life. You’ve planned for retirement and have ample savings on hand. Your child has just graduated from college. Then, after experiencing unexplainable back pain, your child goes to the hospital — just as a precaution. Days later, over the phone, the doctor delivers a diagnosis that no parent ever wants to hear: cancer.
It’s a scenario more common than you think: More than 15,000 children between the ages of birth and 19 are diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S., according to the American Childhood Cancer Organization. And it’s exactly what happened to one father and son I know, whom we’ll refer to as Henry and Brian for their privacy.
