Dad Helps Immunocompromised Kids Play Safely After Daughter's Cancer Battle

But as Good Morning America reported, they were soon devastated to learn that she really had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

As her father Brad said, "We were told our daughter has cancer at 10 o'clock at night and by the following morning, she was in surgery. That's how fast it changed my life."

This meant that her family would have to be extremely careful with washing her fruits and vegetables, as well as making sure any meat she ate was well-done. But an issue that meant far more to her was the fact that she wouldn't be able to play in any public spaces like parks.

Brad shared this concern with her doctors, and they told him to take her on a drive since that's still in a confined space.

In Brad's words, "She finally was at her breaking point and lost it. She was throwing shoes at me from the back, just furious that I wouldn't stop the car. She cried herself to sleep, she was so worked up."

This led him to try and find a space where immunocomprised children could safely play, but he soon learned that no such place existed in his area and that the social workers he knew hadn't even heard of one.

To make this work, he consulted his local medical community to determine what would make that idea feasible.

As a result, he came away with plans for a 5,800-square-foot complex that would have an HVAC system installed with HEPA filters and UV cleaning similar to what you'd find in a hospital.

Each play session here would take 90 minutes with 15 children allowed in the building at once. Each child would be watched over by qualified nursing students and the facility would be cleaned with Decon7 after each session.

But once it's completed, the facility will likely have an even more powerful effect than that, according to Dr. Bijal Shah of the Moffitt Cancer Center.

He told Good Morning America that the ability of children who are going through the same physical and mental changes they'd otherwise be self-conscious about to play together will likely have a profound psychological benefit for them.

Lily's Pad is also meant to help the families of these children. Part of that comes from giving them a break for once, but marriage counseling, grievance counseling, and information on financial resources will also be provided.

According to the Lily's Place Facebook page, she also cut the ribbon on what will one day become Lily's Pad.

Unfortunately, it's unclear when it will actually open as the COVID-19 pandemic delayed construction. Brad now hopes that it will finish by April of 2022 and meet the second anniversary of her final treatment.

As he put it, "My daughter is so excited to be able to open this place and point to the name on the wall and say 'I'm Lily, and you can beat this.'"

h/t: Good Morning America