Often when a parent is diagnosed with cancer, his or her children have nowhere to turn for support. In response to a young mother’s request, the Cancer Center at Missouri Baptist Medical Center created Bear Essentials -- a program that provides age-appropriate tools to help children cope with a parent’s diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Bear Essentials is now an international program for children and their parents.

Financial support is generously provided to Bear Essentials through the Missouri Baptist HealthCare Foundation. Special support has been offered through numerous friends and organizations, including The St. Louis Rams and The Torry Holt Foundation.