Maplewood Community Development Director Rachelle L’Ecuyer’s son, Jacob, missed a year of school after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2013; it took almost nine months to set up Special School District Homebound services while he was going through chemo.
L’Ecuyer contacted the editor of St. Louis Magazine because she wanted to raise awareness of the difficulties they experienced in his education, she said in an email to 40 South News.
From the St. Louis Magazine article, “The reality of cancer treatment—every day had to be lived moment to moment—made everything tricky, especially school. Because Jacob was going to be in and out of the hospital irregularly throughout the school year, Rachelle immediately submitted paperwork to the Special School District of St. Louis County to qualify him for a program called Homebound, which pairs sick children with teachers who help them keep up their studies off campus.”
She said ultimately, they got the best teacher he could have had and it all worked out, “but when you are dealing with a sick child the last thing you want to hear is that he can’t get the help he is entitled to. I was hoping to help others by sharing our story,” L’Ecuyer told 40 South News.
L’Ecuyer said she and Jacob talked about what they can do to help others who are going through cancer.
“He’s still going through a lot of physical therapy and we’re trying to figure out what he’ll do this summer. Once we do that, I think we’ve narrowed it down to volunteering for Friends of Kids with Cancer,” she said.
L’Ecuyer said one of the most important paragraphs in the St. Louis Magazine article is the one about all that the Maplewood businesses did for her and her family.
“The Chamber, Jeannine (Beck, the director) in particular, really rallied for us,” she said. “Every day someone still checks on with me to see how we’re doing. Maplewood is a very special place.”
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And a big “thank you” to Luna without whom recovery would have taken a lot longer.
So happy to hear GREAT NEWS! I hope his experience helps others to get faster help.
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