While other 11-year-olds were outside playing with their friends, Lilli Curry was fighting a bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma in the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas.
Ewing’s Sarcoma is found mainly in children and is treated with chemotherapy, surgery or radiation.
Lilli’s family bought her an iPad to help time pass more easily during her chemo and surgical treatments.
“We thought it’d help them out a lot and it actually did a lot more than that, Lilli loved her iPad,” said James Delligatti, her cousin. “She used it everywhere she went and it distracted her from her treatment and her boredom, and so we decided we could help other kids doing this.”
Inspired by Lilli’s reaction, James and his brother, Christian, decided to create a loaning library of iPads for children at the Ronald McDonald House in Pittsburgh.
The Delligattis’ grandfather co-founded the House in Pittsburgh and the brothers volunteer there frequently.
Lilli used her iPad to keep up with schoolwork, play games — JellyCar being her favorite — and to update friends and family on her treatment.
James said all the guests at the Ronald McDonald House in Pittsburgh need to do is apply for an iPad.
“They can use them from 9 in the morning to 9 at night, and during that time they can ask us for any different application, movie, book, music that they want to and we’ll upload it onto the iPad for them, and they can also use it for emailing, they can use the Internet, if they already have an iTunes account they can put that on there, they can do pretty much anything they want to with the iPad,” Christian said.
The brothers sent a survey to the families at the House to see what applications they would like to see on the iPads.
The brothers applied for grants and collected donations to buy the 20 iPads, the charging station and a MacBook Air for the children.
“Lilli absolutely loves it, she’s crazy about the idea, she really likes that we named it after her and she wants to become a bigger part of it as time goes on in the future,” James said.
Thirteen-year-old Lilli has been in remission for over a year.
