With Open Hearts

At Cook Children's, miracles happen every day. It's one thing for us to tell those incredible stories, but they're much more powerful when you hear them directly from the source: our patients and their families. When they open their hearts and share their memories and emotions, the impact is immeasurable. This is why we've created a Patient Ambassador program.

Each year, Cook Children's Health Foundation receives a large number of requests from our community and corporate partners for patients and families to share their stories at their events or fundraisers. The Patient Ambassador program is helping us to fulfill those requests

Through the Patient Ambassador program, patients who are interested in speaking publicly about their medical journey are encouraged to complete and submit an application to our Child Life department.

Selected patients and their parents then attend an orientation to receive training on how to most effectively tell their story. Knowing that it can be difficult to relive some of their memories, Cook Children's staff provide guidance on the importance of embracing those feelings and using them to make a connection with their audience.

Throughout the year, these young philanthropists attend events and help offer insight on being Cook Children's patients. We are grateful to them for shining a light on the great work being done here at Cook Children's, but furthermore, we are honored to be a part of their stories. We're excited to now have 13 patients of varying ages and diagnoses selected as the first class of Cook Children's Patient Ambassadors.