“If God brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it.” This is the advice Cindy Bish loves to give to others, and in her experience it has proven to be true. On August 20th, 2010 Cindy and her husband Michael lost their son Sam to Osteosarcoma bone cancer. He was only nine-years-old. However, in the wake of this tragedy, Cindy had the courage to carry on Sam’s name by creating the Sam Bish Foundation.
Cindy is the director of the Sam Bish Foundation. The mission of the local foundation is “to bring hope, support and smiles to children and families faced with a pediatric cancer diagnosis.” Cindy can be found doing a lot of her work on Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Hematology and Oncology floor. Here the foundation not only provides emotional support but will also help families pay expensive medical bills or provide them with meals.
The Sam Bish Foundation manages to bring a fun atmosphere to the hospital as well. Cindy has helped organize many events for the young patients including a Halloween party complete with a magician and all. Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Jammies for Hope, a pajama drive where each child being treated for cancer receives a new pair of pajamas, was started by Cindy. The foundation has also conducted a drive to collect gift cards to donate to families in treatment.
Most importantly, however, Cindy stresses that The Sam Bish Foundation is more than just a philanthropic cause. “My hope and the hope for the foundation are to create awareness for pediatric cancer.” She also wants people to remember that the gold ribbon is the symbol for pediatric cancer and encourages others to display it with conviction.
Cindy is humble but very proud that through the trials of her life she has remained strong and has not given up. Through her example and the foundation Cindy has shown her family and other families fighting pediatric cancer how to “turn their trials into triumph.” It is even more meaningful to her because she does this to honor her late son Sam’s life and his memory.
Cindy lives in Reynoldsburg with her husband of 13 years, Michael, and her kids Aubry (8) and Caitlin (5). After the obstacles she has overcome, Cindy loves and appreciates her family and friends even more. She believes in and relates with a quote she once heard, “Do not think of painful experience as a dark time in your life. You emerge out of everything learning something or becoming a better person. You realize who your real friends are and how much your loved ones mean to you.”
For more information about the Sam Bish Foundation, visit www.sambishfoundation.org.