NOVI, Mich. – No one, especially not a child, likes to spend an extended time in a hospital.
Roughly 30,000 children in the state of Michigan have to go into the hospital for some sort of treatment every year. Now, a local charity is on a mission to make the children's hospital stays a little bit easier by making them more cozy.
Watch the video above for the full report.
Carter Butler was a typical 5-year-old. She played with her little brother and her friends and went to day care. Last summer, however, Carter had a fever and went to the hospital. That's when her family received heartbreaking news.
"Carter was diagnosed with leukemia this past June and it was very devastating for us and we kind of found it unexpectedly. We were just told that she had cancer," Carter's mother, Allie Butler, said.
Carter has been in and out of the hospital going through chemotherapy treatment, and during one of those treatments, she received a blanket from Fleece & Thank You.
"We were there on Christmas Eve and she had to get a spinal tap with chemo. So that's going under the anesthesia and, you know, waiting an hour to wake up," Allie Butler said. "So, to be given the blanket that she was wrapped in, you know, while she was going to sleep, right and then waking up in the same blanket, you know, just kind of coming in and out in your own bed, in your own comfy way."
Every blanket comes with a personal video message from the person or group who donated it.
Fleece & Thank You hosts about 400 blanket-making events every year.