Jessie Huiskin - Phinley’s Fight And A Mother’s Faith

A sore arm, on-and-off fevers, and a three-year-old who couldn’t climb like she used to—what looked like growing pains became a leukemia diagnosis that rerouted an entire family’s life. Jesse Huiskin joins us to share Phinley’s story with candor and courage: the frantic ICU days, a suspected brain infection that wasn’t, a tiny arm bone broken by marrow pressure, and the long road of relearning how to walk, eat, and speak. Through each turn, she shows how small mercies and fierce love can coexist with fear, and how faith can hold when answers don’t.We explore the practical side that most families don’t see until they’re in it: turning a sterile room into a child’s space, building a blanket fort around IV lines, managing meals and laundry, and coordinating work and siblings while living at the hospital. Jesse wrote Surviving to Thriving to give parents a handbook she couldn’t find—what to pack, what hospitals usually provide, how to advocate, and how to protect a child’s joy. Her mantra is simple and powerful: say yes. Yes to help, yes to community, yes to the small requests that make a hospital room feel like home.We also confront a hard truth: only 8 percent of U.S. cancer research funding goes to pediatric cancers. Kids aren’t miniature adults, and outdated protocols cost lives. Jesse explains how Rally Foundation bridges that gap—funding research with 93 cents of every dollar going to mission and offering direct family support across the Gulf Coast. With Phinley’s Phighters we’re working towards research grant in Phinley's memory and inviting our community to join events that turn grief into momentum.If you’ve faced loss, are starting a hospital journey, or want to help children get better treatments faster, this conversation offers both heart and a roadmap. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more families find real help and hope.To learn more goto: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586830817127Also the Rally Foundation: https://fundraise.rallyfoundation.org/team/793906For more information contact us [email protected]