Fox 2 Detroit (9/7/20): Blood Cancer Foundation of Michigan explains new name, need for donations

The Children's Leukemia Foundation of Michigan has changed its name to the Blood Cancer Foundation of Michigan.

"The reason it was important to change our name was to recognize the already open umbrella to (include more than just leukemia)," said Heidi Grix. "We have been servicing more than leukemia for most of our history. We wanted our name to reflect the actual reality of what we were doing."

FOX 2: "Now with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are tryiong to practice social distancing measures and figure out how to stay safe.- especially those with compromised immune systems. People who have had blood cancer. People who have blood cancer can teach us a lesson because they have been dealing with this for many years."

"That is a very good point. We have been in close contact with our patients and their families," Grix said. "One of them said something that was interesting, they said you are all living in our world now. We have compromised immune systems, we can't go out, we have to be careful with who we come in contact with, we have to be careful about who comes into our home. How we behave when we go out of the home and generally practice social distancing very effectively.

"So they are teaching us a thing or two about how to live in this environment where we can't go out safely, unless we take precautions and we have to social distance ourselves. We've been helping spread that message a little bit with other constituents as well."

FOX 2: "Those with blood cancer are dealing with even more thanks to the pandemic."

"We call the blood cancer patients and most vulnerable of the cancer patients because their immune systems are so compromised. Covid has affected them in the way it's affected all of us as well," Grix said. "But they were already at a heightened state of crisis.So we're bringing extra resources in to make sure they have what they need to remain healthy and remain stable during this time."

In our fundraising conference have been a challenge like everybody else's. I don't think there's a nonprofit or a large corporation that has not been affected. During the spring when the virus first hit, in March, our spring fundraising season is responsible for about half of our annual income and of course it was just canceled. Everything was canceled or postponed, it was very bleak for a while and we were trying to manage and get things on track again.

"I'm happy to report that we had our first fundraiser an outdoor golf outing and we surpassed our goal in regard to attendance and golfers and our fundraising goals so things are pointing in the right direction."

If people want to donate, they can go to bloodcancerfoundationmi.org.