Last year, our now 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter was suddenly diagnosed with leukemia. Before this, my wife and I lived overseas in North Africa where we lived, worked, and raised A, and as almost anyone can imagine, this diagnosis changed our entire lives. As a Nurse Clinician to our doctor (Head, Pediatrics, Hematology/Oncology Division), Stephanie Lloyd always patiently answered our hundreds of questions and worked tirelessly and diligently to provide us with the information so that we as parents would feel empowered and prepared to make well-informed decisions for our little A.

Early on, we started processing with Stephanie the many decisions about A's care such as her prognosis, our life overseas, our work, and the excruciating challenges that we were about to start facing with blood cancer treatment. Stephanie went the extra mile during our clinic appointments to process and reassure us of our thoughts and decisions. Even during the random phone calls we'd make throughout the week, she would cheerfully answer the phone and joyfully respond to our crazy questions. She would often stay to process our doubts and concerns about A's condition that day and what liberties we could take, if any, with our socializing given A's blood results.

I've always known that Stephanie is the go-to person for processing, I learned this early on because often I could tell when people were getting annoyed with my plethora of questions, but not Stephanie, at least she never made us feel that way. With a smile and calming presence, Stephanie would always playfully interact with A and let her type on the computer after we had our consultation with the doctor.

Walking through your child's childhood cancer demands an amazing support team. They say, "It takes a village to raise a child", and I say, "It takes a Stephanie to get that child through childhood cancer". I'm so grateful for Stephanie's role in helping us get back overseas. As I write this, I'm currently sitting in our new apartment overseas, and I just noticed that Stephanie has already sent us an email checking in on us and asking how we're settling in. Here's to show you how intentional she is! It was challenging saying our "see you later" to Stephanie but we are confident that we will cross paths again. During our last visit to the clinic, Stephanie asked if I could sign some papers. Little did I know what was in store... She drew the most beautiful hand-drawn photo of A that we'd ever seen and got everyone on our clinic oncology team to sign the picture and write a message. It brought us to tears.

How does one start to thank the people who saved their child from cancer? Stephanie is a gem, and the doctor and Loma Linda Children's Hospital are blessed to have hired a nurse like her. This world needs more Stephanies on their medical team. She is truly a DAISY Nurse.