SLIDELL, La. — A college student from the Northshore, says getting cancer at a young age gave him a clear vision of purpose.
And today, at Ochsner Hospital for Children, he spread Christmas joy to young patients who are walking the same hospital halls.
When Bryce Newman was in high school, he was a college baseball contender. And then, something felt off.
“Playing baseball, running around the bases, tripping and falling, stuff that I, a player at my caliber, shouldn't be doing,” remembers Bryce Newman, 24.
Then headaches started. At 15-years-old, Bryce was diagnosed with brain cancer with a five percent chance to survive.
“I felt like I was going to be fine. I felt like God's got this and he had, he had a plan for me, and he did,” said Newman.
That plan is to use his cancer experience to give back and focus attention on other children with cancer. So, he started a foundation to give iPads to young patients.
“It meant a lot, because I can talk to my friends, be in close contact, it also helps with school, because I do online school right now,” said Autumn Vinet, 13, who has bone cancer.
“I watch YouTube, and play games, yeah, school work,” said cancer patient, Addison Pitre, 5.
“It made her forget pretty much why she was here. It took her mind off of the dread that she was living,” said Addison’s mother, Lindsay Pitre.
This is only the first Christmas for Miracle at Manchester Foundation, and already they have given out 250 iPads, and they have 80 more to go. Five hospitals in three states, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, have contacted them to come hand them out.
“I understand the educational need, the nutritional need, the isolation that you have to be while you're in the hospital, all those things other than cancer, because the doctor’s got that. God’s got that,” said Newman.
The iPad idea came to Bryce when he got two Make-A-wish donations while going through multiple brain surgeries, chemo, and high dose radiation. One was a car. The other was an iPad. He decided to give the iPad to Kimi next door in the hospital. She did not make it, but he saw how much it brightened her life. Bryce can no longer play baseball, but now the college student is making Christmas merry and bright for hundreds of children.
If you would like to donate visit the Miracle at Manchester Foundation.
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