A Louisiana woman is on a mission to bring comfort to children with cancer and other chronic diseases around the world.
Alison Greene has been sewing handcrafted blankets for children all around the world. She was inspired to start by her son, who is a cancer survivor.
“Missouri. Indiana. Maryland,” Greene said.
The blankets have traveled across the United States, and even around the world, from the small town Sugartown, Louisiana.
“From Sugartown all the way to South Africa,” she added.
In the two years since she started, Greene has sewn more than 200 blankets with 61 more blankets ready to comfort a sick child.
The cause is so personal for Greene because her son, Justin, is a childhood cancer survivor.
“Their life changes overnight,” said Greene. “What you knew the before is totally different than the next day.”
Through the two rounds of Leukemia and five years total of chemo, Greene saw first-hand what a piece of home could mean in a hospital.
“That was his comfort, that was his comfort that he had with him,” she said.
Through Greene’s Facebook page, Ali’s Nic Nacs, and by word of mouth, she has connected with families who could use the personal gift.
Nine-year-old Shaun Smith of Pitkin treasures his blanket, while his parents have treasured Greene’s support.
"She’s been through it, too so she knows exactly, exactly what we’re going through. It’s great, it’s heart-warming really that people do stuff like that,” Smith’s father said.
Greene’s favorite part has been receiving pictures of the children with their blankets.
“I feel like I have another child. It’s just that one thing we have in common,” she said.
Greene said sometimes the magnitude of what these children are enduring is too much, so she will step back and take a couple of days off.
Children like Shaun, however, remind her to get back behind her sewing machine.
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