Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Haley Pollack. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Haley, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

When I was diagnosed with Stage IIIc colon cancer at 37, I had just returned from my parental leave. I had a 6 month old and 3 year old and after I heard those terrible words “you have cancer” my first thoughts were of my precious kids. When I scoured the internet for resources for my kids, I couldn’t find what I needed and the terrifying experience of a cancer diagnosis became an extremely alienating one as well. It wasn’t until I was introduced to another young mom with cancer who also had two small kids that things started to get easier. We became fast friends and a lot of what we connected about was how to parent with cancer. What if you are too tired? What if your kids has a question? How do you talk about it?

We were experiencing the resource gap first hand and we knew that we weren’t alone. At lunch, over tacos ,we were like: BAM. Let’s do this. Bright Spot Network was born.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Bright Spot Network supports young families where a parent has cancer and is raising small kids.

We take a whole family approach to our Support and Care programs. We support kids through kids groups to connect kids to other kids who have a parent with cancer, we offer resources on our website intended to help normalize cancer and cancer treatment, offer free age-appropriate kids books about cancer, grief/loss and big emotions to help kids to talk about cancer and offer free art kits for kids to complete with a parent when a parent just isn’t feeling well, due to cancer treatment. For parents and non-cancer partners, we offer virtual support groups, financial groups, and resources for how to talk to kids about cancer and how to navigate parenting with cancer.

Taken together Bright Spot Network is a beautiful bonded community of patients, kids, and other loved ones.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When we first started Bright Spot Network it was right before shelter-in-place orders because of COVID-19. Our original ideas was to create family focused retreats for parents and kids to relax and reconnect, while also building community. COVID forced us to quickly pivot and we built out the organization that we now run. In the end, we’ve learned that we’ve been able to touch many more lives through programs that reach more people. And yet, we cannot wait until we are able to host a retreat! We can’t wait to host one soon!!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

After my cancer diagnosis there were many days that were so difficult I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning — not only did I not feel well physically but I was deeply sad about my diagnosis and treatment. I’m hesitant to call it resilience but my focus is always on putting one foot in front of the other, day after day. There were some days that I couldn’t do very much at all but staying focused on what I could do — even if it was JUST putting one foot in front of the other — felt like forward motion. Sometimes moving forward, even in tiny steps, is all you need.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brightspotnetwork.org
• Instagram: @brightspotnetwork
• Facebook: @brightspotnetwork
• Linkedin: Bright Spot Network
• Twitter: brightspotnet