Kira Howard (l) and Tiffany Agnew (r) (Image: Tiffany Agnew)
The Braedon Foundation, created by local entrepreneur Tiffany Agnew, continues to provide support during COVID-19 for New Brunswick children and their families who live with life-threatening or high-risk illnesses.
Agnew created the foundation after her eighteen-year-old son Braedon passed away in 2018; its purpose is to create a legacy in Braedon’s memory by raising the spirits of New Brunswick children, ages 3-18, who are living with serious illness.
“As soon as I started connecting with families to coordinate happy heart makeovers and shopping sprees I saw the need for a support group in our community,” said Agnew. “Being the mother of child who had two life-threatening illnesses myself I knew first-hand how life-changing this could be for other families. Once the idea landed on my heart, I knew The Braedon Foundation had to make it happen. It’s just another way Braedon’s bright light can impact the world.”
Since its creation, The Braedon Foundation has brought joy to several New Brunswick children through Happy Heart Bedroom Makeovers and shopping sprees. It has also been a welcome support for parents.
“The biggest thing is just being able to find people that are walking similar paths has been a huge thing for me; quite often, it feels really isolating when you’re walking something this challenging and as much as you explained to people, people just don’t quite understand, because it’s not their reality,” said foundation member Katrina McElhinney.
Tiffany Agnew and Braedon (Tiffany Agnew)
“Being able to talk with other parents who are walking the same thing. Just being able to, you know, process everything that we’re going through has been a huge blessing.” At this time, McElhinney and her family and enjoying their time at home away from the germs.
Due to the COVID-19 quarantine, some of the foundation’s services have been paused.
“We do have some of our services that are put on hold, like we can’t do any shopping sprees right now because we have to be in their home,” said Agnew. “But we are trying to coordinate with one of our applicants right now to do an online shopping spree.” she added.
People who are immune-compromised are at a higher risk during the pandemic, so support group meetings are suspended for the time being.
“We really didn’t want to cancel because of all the added stress that the parents are feeling right now,” she said. “We’ve been able to take that online so we’re hoping that we can hopefully reach more people right now,” said Agnew.
The foundation has taken its support group fully online, due to children being at higher risk during quarantine. Kira Howard, a Braedon Foundation board member and certified counselor, is also the group’s counselor. “We have a paid Zoom account so that we have a private room so that they are able to take a third link in and go online with our counselor,” said Agnew.
“Having known Braedon since he was born, it is an honour for me to facilitate the support group on behalf of the Braedon Foundation,” said Kira Howard. “We provide a sage and open space for parents of children with critical illnesses to come together to build relationships and understanding.”
Parents of children are struggling in general through the pandemic, but even more are children who are seriously ill and at a higher risk.
“It is definitely a struggle for them,” said Agnew. Members of new family had to isolate from their child because a family member was exposed to someone who had COVID-19. “A lot of them are already used to kind of being isolated because their children are kind of always at risk, but then during a pandemic like this it’s even scarier for them.”
New people join the foundation every three months so that the group can become comfortable with each other. At the moment there are five members and Agnew hopes word of mouth and the foundation’s online presence will get more people to join this month.
“If there is a silver lining in all of this, I think it’s that we might be able to reach more people since we’ve had to take the support group online. Also, I think it gives parents some insight to what it feels like to have a child with a critical illness,” said Agnew. “Isolation isn’t new to these kids and families. Something as simple as a cold or flu can become life-threatening. I think it gives some real insight to how important vaccines are to these families and to the well-being of their children; this fear everyone is feeling now, it’s how these parents feel all the time or at least a lot of the time. I know first-hand because I was one.”
