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Teenage Cancer Survivor Creates ‘Teen Kits’ to Help Teens Battling Similar Diseases

A 16-year-old from Clare who battled and survived cancer has come up with a plan to help teens battling similar diseases.

For the last two years, Eliy Simmer, who was 15 at the time of her diagnosis, has been busy beating cancer before finally ringing the bell this past February. And while things were getting back to normal, Eliy has also been very busy making sure teens with the same experience don’t feel alone.

“I absolutely love sunflowers,” Eliy says. “Sunflowers would turn towards each other for light and stuff. And so, like, I always thought that like, share a smile with others and I’ll share that kindness with others.”

While going through her treatments, Eliy had a lot of support, but she realized some things were missing.

“Teens are very overlooked, so how do we fix this?”

That’s why Eliy came up with the idea of ‘Teen Kits’ that are provided to teens going through treatment.

“When I was going through treatment, it was really hard because I didn’t have some of the stuff that I put in the teen kits to help me get through the hard days,” Eliy says.

A Kid Again Michigan Chapter noticed what Eliy was doing and wanted to make her a part of something big this Thanksgiving.

“Just… amazing humans. She is doing everything she can to be an advocate for other kids going through these things and to just do everything she can for others,” Carmen Argersinger at Delta Dental said. “And I thought, you know what, if we did something for her? So we thought what a nice opportunity to put her on our float if that can give her a little bit of a platform to be seen and help further the work that she’s doing for other kids, then let’s do it.”

This Thanksgiving, Eliy will be a youth ambassador representing a Kid Again on the Delta Dental float at American’s Great Parade in Detroit, which you can watch in Detroit on Thursday morning.

And you can donate to Eliy’s Sunflowers by .

 

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