Mom has a soft spot for cancer-stricken kids

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - The smallest thing can make a big difference in a child's battle against cancer. A local mom learned that the hard way when her 10-year-old son was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer.

Now that mom, Paula Yost, is making and hand-delivering something that hundreds of hospitalized children will appreciate - soft pillowcases.

Her son, Gary Yost, had to sleep on a scratchy, stiff pillow case during the most difficult time of his life - when he was diagnosed with cancer at age 10.

"It sort of felt like you were laying on a piece of paper over feathers - and it didn't really feel that great - so I was hoping that I could have a pillowcase that would feel soft," he says.

His mom agreed and made him a special pillowcase.

"Well, I think it's important because that's where their little head is all day, and they're tired, and they sleep all day - and to have a comfort ..." says Paula.

Paula Yost tells how she got the idea to make soft pillowcases for cancer-stricken children.

What started as one pillow case for one little boy turned into 30 of Paula's friends and family members mass-producing 200 pillow cases.

Then a local 4-H Club got involved, volunteering to help make pillow cases on Saturday. Volunteers came to Federal Way from as far as Oregon and Vancouver, Wash., to join in.

"It will provide joy and happiness for them to get through the treatment without them being bombarded by too many of the bad things," says Gary.

Adds Paula: "Finishing treatment is not finishing the journey. Because the kids, they're still going to play sports, and they're going to go to school and want to do all the things the other kids are doing, but their bodies won't always cooperate with them."

And so, for Gary the journey continues - to help the next child have a soft spot during a rough time.