Christmas comes early for parents, children at Tom Coughlin Jay Fund party

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Erich and Katie Anderson joined a club this year that they never wanted to be part of — parents of a child with cancer.

Tom Coughlin wants the Andersons and so many other families in their positions to know one very powerful thing.

“No one fights cancer alone.”

Saturday, the Griffins were part of the annual Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Christmas party where both children and families took part in a day of all-out fun. A snow machine hummed and spit out artificial snow. Children got their faces painted and munched on popcorn. There was a snow princess on stilts. And there were presents, lots and lots of presents.

Coughlin, the former Jaguars and Giants head coach, said that this day in particular happens to be one of his most memorable of the year.

“You’d never know it was Christmas by looking outside today. It’s such a beautiful day, but this is a highlight of the year, and it’s great to see everybody here with a smile on their face,” Coughlin said. “Because it’s another one of those things where we say, ‘take a day off from cancer.’ Leave it out there in the parking lot. Come in here, forget about your troubles and have a great time.”

Like so many families who have been affected by the disease, the Andersons were just a regular family last Christmas. Griffin, who was then an active 1-year-old toddler, was trying to heal up from a tumble off a bunk bed ladder when he was playing with his brother. That trip to the emergency room didn’t reveal any breaks but it wound up opening the door to a diagnosis that the Andersons never would have known about otherwise.

That fall led to more testing and ultimately a diagnosis of Ewing sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that has just between 200 and 250 diagnosed cases a year, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Griffin underwent three months of chemotherapy but had to have his left arm amputated last September. His chemotherapy runs through February. On Saturday, Griffin was active and enjoying his time at the WJCT studios, even getting his photo taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

“Just to know that they’ve been there for us, they’re there for us. Financial aid to help us out. Morally [support] for our kids for fun things to do,” Katie said. “I didn’t realize all the costs that we would have just additionally that pop up, and we are just so thankful to have resources like the Jay Fund in our community to support kids with cancer and our families.”

The Jay Fund origination story is well-known. One of Coughlin’s players at Boston College, Jay McGillis, was diagnosed with leukemia and died after just nine months with the disease. Coughlin and his wife, Judy, were moved by McGillis’ battle and troubled by the lack of help available for his family during that brief fight. One of Coughlin’s BC players brought up how the McGillis family was struggling with their bills while having to stop working to help their son. Players raised $50,000 and gave it to the McGillis family during halftime of the BC spring football game. That gave Tom and Judy the inspiration to launch the initiative that would carry McGillis’ name in 1996.

Since its inception, the Jay Fund has provided more than $28 million in support to families of children battling pediatric cancer in the Northeast Florida and New York/New Jersey metro areas.

“The goal, obviously, again, no one fights cancer alone,” Coughlin said. “So, it’s just saying that and being there and helping them go through this and trying to get out the other end. And that’s why we say beyond. We’re even there for them beyond when the cure is because obviously, [the battle] doesn’t stop, unfortunately.”