'I'm Still The Same Person': Howell Teen Aims To Help Cancer Patients Feel Acceptance

HOWELL, NJ — Riley Risden remembers the day she returned to school, months after being diagnosed with Pre B acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

It was near the end of her fifth-grade year, Riley said Wednesday in a phone interview with Patch, about a year after she had been diagnosed.

"My expectations were I would have full conversations with my friends," Riley said. That wasn't what happened, however.

The teacher told her classmates to come over and welcome Riley back to school, a few at a time, but the conversations were very brief.

"They would say, 'Hello, how are you?' and then they would walk away," she said, even those who had been her closest friends through the previous years of elementary school. "I finally come in and it’s just silence from those people."

"I was still the same friend they knew before but they didn’t see me like that anymore," she said.

Riley, who's now 14, is in remission after treatment for the leukemia that was diagnosed just before Memorial Day in 2021. But the memories of how her friends — and some adults, too — responded have spurred her to try to educate people on childhood cancer and how cancer patients wish to be treated.

On Sunday, Riley is leading an event to not only spread that message but also to raise donations for several charitable organizations that have helped her and her family during her leukemia journey.

The Childhood Cancer Awareness event is set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Southard Fire Department firehouse, 4611 Route 9, Howell.

There are eight organizations that will be represented at the event, all collecting donations for the work they do to support cancer patients and their families. In addition, there is a Challenge Coin fundraiser featuring police, fire and EMS logos, honoring both first responders and those battling childhood cancer.

The organizations that will be collecting donations at the event are the Frances Foundation, G's Giving Gowns, Liv Like A Unicorn, the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation, the Dream Factory, the Mya Lin Terry Foundation, Kick Cancer Overboard, and the Ashley Lauren Foundation.

The event also will have organizations providing information to support cancer patients and their families, along with representatives of the national bone marrow registry and a bloodmobile where people can sign up to donate blood.

For Riley, the event is not simply about her personal mission to help people understand how cancer patients want to be treated; it's also her Silver Award project for Girl Scouts. Riley is a member of Troop 6077 of Howell. The Silver Award is the second-highest award in Girl Scouts.

The personal reasons for the event are a huge motivator, however.

Riley said the awkwardness about her cancer remained in her friendships until she was in seventh grade. Her treatments for the leukemia continued into October of that school year, but she additionally had the complication of avascular necrosis, where her bones became brittle. As a result she used a wheelchair for more than half of the school year, she said.

But a change in middle schools after seventh grade helped, as she made new friends quickly. It also helped when she was able to stop using the wheelchair and start walking again. Some friends she had from elementary school were able to have the deeper conversations she had looked for three years earlier.

Riley said it has gotten easier to talk about her experience and to answer some of the questions she receives. One big question remains difficult to answer for peers who ask it: "How did you get it?"

"It's a question I've thought of," Riley said. "It's hard to answer because they (the medical community) don't know. There is no real answer."

In addition to the information event, Riley is working with the Howell Township Schools to create a video for students to help them learn how to help friends who are going through difficult medical situations such as cancer.

What she hopes is that not only her friends but people in general will learn what cancer patients go through, and will understand that while outwardly they look different during or after their treatment, they haven't changed as people.

"I didn't feel the same but in my heart I was the same," she said.

Understanding that is the key to helping them really feel they have a village behind them, Riley said.

Here are the donations being sought:

• Frances Foundation: Monetary donations, gift cards for gas, food, food delivery, grocery stores, Amazon and other stores
• G's Giving Gowns: Monetary donations, purchases from their JCPenney list here
• Liv Like a Unicorn: Amazon Gift List
• Emmanuel Cancer Foundation: Gift Cards (gas, food, Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, food delivery, grocery stores, Amazon, and stores. etc.); Non-perishables; Self-care items (toothbrush, toothpaste, body soap, hair products, laundry detergent, and deodorant etc.); Monetary donations
• Dream Factory: Gift cards (Amazon, Costco, BJs and Dollar Tree etc.); Monetary donations; Amazon.com
• Mya Lin Terry Foundation: Legos (all ages); Toys (infant-3 years); Gift cards (gas, food, food delivery, grocery stores, Amazon, stores etc.); Monetary donations
• Kick Cancer Overboard: Gift auction items (No alcohol or lottery/gambling); Monetary donations
• Ashley Lauren Foundation: Shoprite Gift Cards, Wawa Gift Cards; CHOP Meal Vouchers (can be purchased on CHOP’s website); Amazon gift cards; Monetary donations