Mom, Caretaker, and Advocate: Celebrating Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month with Erin Nahorny

In this episode Ali and Alyssa had the honor of interviewing Erin Nahorny, the mom of Sammy, a now 12 year old, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at the age of 4. She shared with us what it was like to find out that Sam had neuroblastoma, what his journey looked like and how she and their family all came out the other side. She also told us about the foundation that she helped start which is giving money each year to further research in childhood cancers. 

Erin Nahorny is a busy wife to Chris and mama to Ella (16), Sam (12) and Jacob (9). She is a passionate advocate for childhood cancer awareness and funding. People who know her would describe her as motivated, hard-working and passionate about what is important to her. 

Erin grew up in Columbus, NE and returned to the area in 2005, when her husband, Chris, began working for her family’s business. Erin completed her education with a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Doane College. She worked in the social services industry for 15 years, but left her position as the Children’s Services Director at the Center for Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Survivors when her son, Sammy, was diagnosed with Stage 4, High-Risk Neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer, in 2012. For several years following Sam’s diagnosis, Erin made caring for Sammy and her family her #1 priority.

In 2013, Erin, Chris and a group of close friends founded Sammy’s Superheroes Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting childhood cancer awareness and research. To date, the all volunteer foundation has funded over $1,000,000 in research grants to hospitals all over the country. 

In 2017, Erin began to consider returning to a career of service, but didn’t feel the same passion to continue her career in social services. After much soul-searching, Erin decided a complete change of career was in the cards and she began studying real estate. She found a great balance between her love of helping others through her work with the foundation and helping families navigating the difficult path of childhood cancer and also having her own career. 

Outside of Sammy’s Superheroes, Erin has been actively involved in various volunteer and non-profit entities for many years. She has worked with the American Red Cross as a Critical Incident Stress Management/Debriefing therapist. She worked with the grief support program, Mourning Hope, as a group facilitator and served on their Board of Directors. She was the Chair for her local United Way's “Kids for Change” Campaign. She is a member of St. Isidore’s Catholic Church and loves to volunteer at her children’s school.

To connect with Erin or find out more about Sammy's Superheroes visit them on

Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/SammysSuperheroes/

and on 

Instagram @sammys_superheroes

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Join our community at www.fitformotherhoodpodcast.com

Om Podcasten

Hi friends, welcome to the Fit For Motherhood Podcast!!! Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen, we are SO excited to have you with us! We have been friends since early childhood, grew up together and are currently the moms of littles 5 and under. A LITTLE BIT OF INFO ON US Ali lives in central Illinois with her husband, Matt, and their three kids (4, 3 & 1). She is a part time hair stylist and spends the rest of her time at home with her kids. She is an enneagram 9w1. Alyssa lives in Chicago with her husband, Grant, and their two toddlers (3 & 1). She works part time as a pediatric oncology nurse and is also a certified holistic health coach & life coach and the owner of Grounded Roots Coaching. She especially loves working with women during their first year postpartum. She is still trying to figure out her enneagram. WHY ARE WE PASSIONATE ABOUT THE TOPIC OF MOTHERHOOD? • We’re MOMS • We’ve both experienced difficulties in our journeys as moms and have felt alone in dealing with those challenges. • We’re tired of the perfect images that are crafted on social media to which we find ourselves comparing our lives. • For Ali, she has become more self-aware in the last year or so and is tired of being dragged along by life. She has challenged herself to find ways to be more proactive about her mental and physical health because she realizes how much those things affect her ability to parent effectively. WHY ARE WE DOING THIS PODCAST? • Letting moms know that they are not alone in questioning their fitness for parenting • Encouraging other moms to know that we can do the hard things of motherhood, even when we doubt our abilities. • Sharing practical applications and also ideas that can be helpful in keeping ourselves mentally and physically fit for motherhood. We would love to have you with us every week as we talk together through topics that are important to us (and hopefully you!), interview other moms who are walking through all the different issues that come with the different stages of motherhood, and bond together over the things we have in common that truly make us fit for motherhood.