>> abc7 is proud to bring you the inspirational stories of families once in crisis now full of relief and hope. with the taylor family foundation's help. in our special program called just like me. >> the second we get in they put her in a bed, take me away and tell me that they're 99% sure it was cancer. >> you're healthy now. and are you happy that you are healthy? >> yes. >> nobody can prepare you for being told your daughter has a brain tumor. >> now which arm are you serving better with now? the one that doesn't work so well? >> that is amazing. >> by my early teenage years i

would be that wheelchair full time and i was kind of like what about my sweet 16. the fact there is whole organization that dedicates themselves to helping people with diseases and chronic illnesses, this is amazing. >> i'm here at camp arroyo where 3,000 kids come every year with life-threatening illnesses and life altering conditions and they can be here with kids who just like them. taylor family foundation makes it happen but they do so much more. >> can you say thank you taylor family? >> thank you taylor family. >> what flavors? [ laughter ] >> one of the things i love about camp arroyo and taylor family foundation, you do much more than camp. >> we do camp and we run 3,000 kids through here.

it's fabulous. they come and get to be their own person and not defined by their illnesses, but they known they go home and then they have other situations. we have an urgent need program. and when families are really in a state of crisis and don't know where to turn, we work with the families to help them through the times of crisis that they couldn't get through. this izzy is one of our sent fund girls who has a very rare condition. it's her ability to do things is going to drop off. >> it will get worse eventually and i will have to be a wheelchair full time. eventually i may not be able to write. eventually i might not be able to talk. you know, all this stuff could go wrong. >> what happened? >> okay, ready?

>> i'm dealing with it. >> they call it f.a.for short, a rare progressive muscular disease. >> the main problems is loss of coordination and balance, fatigue. >> she can't walk without assistance anymore. that was probably the hardest thing for me to see. >> i either crawl or i kind of lean on things or i butt down or my mom helps me. >> f.a.is an inherited disease, izzy's mom and dad both carry the gene. her 8-year-old brother owen has it too but his symptoms are slight for now. >> i think there is no one in our town with f.a.. >> a family friend familiar with

the taylor family foundation suggested the penstons reach out for a bit of support. >> to watch these parents from the outside, all you want to do is get in front and help them and cushion the fall and reach out to them and see if if they've really spoken to everyone or see if they everything they need. >> i met one day and i told her about izzy and owen. she told me about wonderful organized. a lot of our families have rare diseases around sometimes you have to travel to go to a doctor or something. she says we can help you with that. >> cheryl: that is exactly what they did. they 74 the family travel to philadelphia to learn more about the disease and be with others just like them. >> it was really important to see other families and other people in person who are dealing with the the same thing. >> now, we know we aren't like

alone in this battle. >> i can't imagine being that family and having no one to reach out to and by going there and not only do the kids get to meet kids like themselves, just like me, the parents got to get just a plethora of information of how they are going to manage. >> it was a great trip. we probably would not have gone if they hadn't helped us. >> right now izzy is able to walk up and down the steps but it is getting harder. there will be time in our near future where we'll need to either install a ramp or some kind of lift. >> the taylor family foundation has graciously told us that they would help us pay to make home modifications when that time came. that was a huge, huge deal for me because i was already thinking, you know, how are we

gonna pay for this. knowing that we have more support now than just our immediate family, that's really good. it's nice to just have someone to help you when you need it. >> as a parent of kids who are sick and knowing what that entails and how much worry and stress that can put on your family, the fact that there is an organization out there that can take some of that stress off of you is huge. >> some days are easier than others, sometimes it's hour by hour, minute by minute. you just try to stay in the now and try to stay positive. >> it's a family who they have to live in the moment. they have no choice but to live

in the moment. we want to do to support them so if we can help them do that, that is critically important to me. >> the next important venture for the taylor family foundation. ♪ >> music therapy, it's benefits and children will help but first. when you hear she can't go home right away, my god, what is happening? >> and then i started crying, mom, i don't want to do this. >> meet a fremont family that faced a scary situation. faced a scary situation. how the taylor family foundation i'm tony siragusa

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the 2013 volt. charge ahead of the rest in the hov lane. ♪ >> it's such an important time that we needed help. >> we've done everything to paying pg&e bills, transportation, rented costs, school books to making sure that they sara jones, making sure they could get her home to get her to the hospital she needed to be at. >> 12-year-old sara jones went to texas for a 4th of july celebration in 2012. >> she was typical pre-teen, just like all of us going o family vacations and she was having weird symptoms. >> we were like at a diner having lunch and then my legs and my right arm started going numb and i told my mom, she was

all like well, it's different but we'll keep an eye on you. it was like scary but i don't remember anything after that. >> i could see the side of her face, it was drooping and her mouth was drooping. i knew something was wrong, definitely something was wrong. >> mom and dad rushed sara to the emergency room. >> sara has a brain tumor and -- we just -- we didn't know. i literally fell to my knees and we didn't know what to do at that point. our minds were running like crazy. what are wree going to do now? next thing we know she was having a brain surgery. sara's tumor was the size of an egg sitting on her brain stem. >> we were sitting in the hospital room to let the family

know what was going on. >> i was seeing were concerning and lots of please, pray for us and we're doing a scan now. i thought, something is really wrong. >> the jones family has worked with the taylor family foundation for years generously donating money and volunteering at annual day in the park fund-raiser. >> we said jonathan, how week help you. >> i let them know, can we help find them a place to stay. we didn't want them to worry about it. we want them to focus on sara. what they needed was a safe way to get sara back home. >> we took everything we had in savings to make this trip work and it was totally unplanned. we had enough money to get there and get ourselves back. >> we never imagined finding ourselves in this situation how are we going to get her home.

anger describe was an angel, just came out of nowhere. >> they spent days trying to find a donor with a private plane. when that didn't pan out, they settled for a non-packed minimal stop commercial flight. >> the doctors approved the flight so we were able to pay for their flights home and then once they touched down at home we made sure that they had a car to then pick them up at the airport and shuttle them home. >> it was like you said, she was just an angel. that showed up at the right time and just took a huge weight off my shoulders. it was a relief. all we wanted to do was get her home and have her sleep in her own bed and be surrounded by her friends and it was just an answer to our prayers. >> cheryl: the tumor is gone but sara is still dealing with few physical challenges. >> my whole right side was affected because the tumor was on the left side so i can't like

reach straight if you look at my arm. it's like, it will shake and i have really bad balance. this avid volleyball and soccer player refused to let anything stop her from a full recovery. >> whoa! whoa! >> we're glad everyone is healing and getting back to normal. >> the taylor family foundation helping us when we had been trying to help them. it was humbling, it was phenomenal. >> it was a big help. >> we owe them so much and we can never pay them back for what they've done for us. >> it was meant to be. it was a connect the dots. i have said that from the first just like me. >> it usually stems from what we're doing here at camp is how we meet these families and how

it happens. >> we're just really trying to help them get through the moment because in that moment it's that family. it's that family that needs us the most. >> we'll introduce to this family that had such a moment with the taylor foundation's help and how some sweet surprises for this sweet survivor helped her family fight survivor helped her family fight cancer when our special i you see the "mini" ion my chest? funny, yes? no. there's nothing mini about me. i'm huge. ahem. any hoo. even my wrapper has a wrapper. flavor? i'm bursting with it. creamy? i ooze it.

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>> over the course of these 23 years we have done this with probably 80,000 families in some way or another. whether it becomes camp or we help them because they can't get their rent paid or they need their funeral paid for children or grand children. >> it's called the urgent need program.e can step in and help. it's really something that we feel is a gift but not like a

gift like, oh, thank us for it. i don't want that. it's a gift to help them get through that pressure. >> i can't tell you how many times we hear about something and contact the families versus versus the families hear about us and contact us. >> like the martinez family. >> he was born at 11:32 on tuesday and by friday there was a social worker in the hospital and told me how can we help. >> this is esau, three years ago he was born critically ill. >> it was very traumatic delivery and we were worried. thisrushed him off to the corner and started working on him. he was blue and without oxygen and he was having seizures, had some abnormal brain activity and he could be in the hospital for week oregon months. >> he ended up staying in the hospital for six weeks.

>> i could the a call from the co-worker and they want to give you a grant. they asked how much do you make in a month and we'll give you that much money. >> marty and sara martinez both work at tailor made water systems out of concord. that is the company barry taylor founded in 1998. >> i knew who they were. they allowed mow me to stay home with him for four more peeks weex than i planned and get that bonding time. it was like a prayer being answered. >> more people can feel more comfortable approaching because that is what we do. we're here for this. >> i think the camp programs are great and i love them and we will always do them but helping people in that kind of stress is just a beautiful gift for them, for us, for everybody. >> what do you think the secret is to making good cupcake? >> frosting. >> this is amira.

her battle against leukemia began at age 3. doctors say amira won that fight as of 2012. >> i'm a cancer survivor. >> it's a really difficult battle merely, physically, financially. i know several families that elaine and her foundation have touched in many different ways. >> amira and her family credited the taylor family foundation for helping them through the toughest three years of their lives. >> it was difficult. it felt like taylor foundation was our family. they gave us resources. they made sure she was well taken care of financially. merelyly. they were wonderful support for us. >> they suggested the hutcherson visit the children's cancer group at camp aroyo.

>> my hair fell out. >> elaine asked her what was wrong and said i wanted to ride the horses. they are all gone for today but i'll make sure you can ride a horse soon. >> short of getting a horse, we need to get her in lessons. it happened during her chemotherapy and something to look forward to every week. >> that really changed a lot for amila because it was taken a toll on her. it was giving hear new lease on life. >> then came the day last summer when doctors told amira she was cancer free. >> around that time, elaine taylor offered to do a survivor party for her. she cancer survivor. she is a briat, beautiful girl.

[ laughter ] >> ask me what the taylor foundation did for everybody, it gave people memories and who hope. >> music therapy brings home to children living with life-threatening illnesses or differences. taylor family foundation hopes to bring it to camp

♪ >> through the act of making music. it's more than engaging verbally. ♪ ♪ >> things get so bright and see her singing the songs, it's amazing. >> it's one of the programs is music therapy for kids and also to take it to camp. >> our goal i hope with music therapy number one is really

give the kids a new inspiring way to communicate and number two is to get it out there to camp and have additional programs for kids that let them feel joy and hope and allow them to express themselves. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ feeling happy today because my dog ♪ >> 15-year-old diana has been fighting a cancerous brain tumor since 2009 spending months at a time inside children's hospital in oakland for treatment. >> being in one hospital for so long, i just think it really wears on everyone. >> music, art, play, dance, all of those things are important if

not more important as the role the hospital plays as far as medically in their condition and their recovery. >> i know what the horse program does for the kids. i know what the program does for the kids but this music thing unlocks their brain. it's another program we can offer, there are 3,000 but also something we can take to the hospital when the kids are really not well. when they need something in their lives. >> music therapy is going to do that. >> taylor family foundation has joined a band of music therapy supporters to make that happen. it includes children's hospital oakland and long time foundation supporters in the music industry greg and laura perloff with another planet entertainment. they experienced the benefits of music therapy after it helped their son recover from a stroke

in 1. >> 2001. >> there are children with huge anxiety issues being done and the music therapy really helps. >> they bring out the kids's ability to improve at a much faster rated than they would without this program. >> i think this is very exciting collaboration and a perfect fit between the goals of the music therapy program here at children's hospital and those of the taylor family foundation. we use it in the grief camps at lot and seeing the kids to be able to talk to each other and use music as a vehicle to do that. to me, it's one of the most important things we're going to add at camp in this next decade. >> what do you need from the public? >> it's all about funding.

there are the instruments and cost of the therapists and get the muse get the van to get the music therapist around. but we'll make it happen. >> just like the taylor family foundation has figured out how to help so many children and their families for more than two decades. >> thousands of families are very grateful to what you have done. >> and there are thousands of families that needed it. at the end of my life, when i look back, i will have a heart the size of a giant and i will have a head filled with look at 'em. living on cloud nine with that u-verse wireless receiver. you see in my day, when my mom was repainting the house, you couldn't just set up a tv in the basement. i mean, come on! nope. we could only watch tv in the rooms that had a tv outlet. yeah if we wanted to watch tv someplace else, we'd have to go to my aunt sally's. have you ever sat on a plastic covered couch? [ kids cheering ] you're missing a good game over here. those kids wouldn't have lasted one day in our shoes.

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