Kennedy’s flight from AZ to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

We flew 8-year-old (at the time) Kennedy from AZ to OH, providing a FREE, personalized, comfortable, and private flight for her family to reach Kennedy's upcoming surgical procedure and recovery location nearly 1,800 miles away from home. THANK YOU DONORS!

When Kennedy was 5 days old she was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, Overall Kennedy's health was great until the spring of 2021 when Kennedy had a pancreatitis attack. Her parents were scared and at the time did not understand why Kennedy had this attack. She did well after the first attack for about a year, then it happened again in April of 2022. Kennedy went on to have 5 more pancreatitis attacks in 2022 and she and her family were told that she would most likely continue to have them for the rest of her life......

As a mother of a chronically ill child, Kennedy's Mom, Kirstin wanted to do everything in her power to make sure that anything else possible could be done for her and went on a research hunt. Kirstin found that Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio had a center called 'The Pancreas Care Center' and that they did a procedure called Total Pancreatectomy with Islet Autotransplantation (TPIAT). Kennedy was accepted to their center and had to go through a week-long evaluation that included lots of blood tests, imaging, and an endoscopic procedure. After the week of testing, Kennedy returned home and continued to have pancreatitis attacks, as they kept in close contact with the pancreas care team in Cincinnati and in June of 2023 the team of doctors in Cincinnati unanimously voted that Kennedy was a candidate for the TPIAT.

As her family prepared to take Kennedy to Cincinnati again where she would have to remain for 3-4 months, they quickly realized that they would not be able to afford the airfare and were preparing to drive when Jennifer Armer of the Armer Foundation for Kids told us she might be able to help them FLY quickly instead! 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗬 could make it happen! Kristin says "We were so relieved and so thankful that our little girl was going to be able to fly to her destination for her transplant and that we did not have to put Kennedy through a 26-hour drive to Cincinnati."

We were very happy to help make it happen and ROOTING for your health, Kennedy!