A young cancer survivor is collecting fun bandages to make medical situations a little less scary for children.

Six-year-old Caden Garcia, lovingly referred to as Caden Monster by his family, has just finished his last round of chemotherapy at the UMC Health System Southwest Cancer Center.

But the son of Texas Tech animal science graduate Michelle Garcia, and her husband Gabriel, both of Lubbock, isn’t dwelling on how challenging his road to remission has been.

Instead, Caden is collecting fun bandages to help brighten the days of other children being treated at the Southwest Cancer Center. Since Caden was a patient himself, he knows how important something as small as the perfect bandage can be to a child in a scary medical situation.
Lindsay Penrose, Ph.D., research assistant professor and resident research coordinator in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and her colleague Samuel Prien, Ph.D., professor, director of the Clinical and Research Lab, director of the IVF Lab and director of resident research, taught Caden’s mom when she attended Texas Tech.
“I’ve been praying for him all along,” Penrose said. “I'm beyond thrilled that Caden has done so well and is already giving back.”

Michelle Garcia said her husband has already been collecting local donations at the Walgreens at 34th Street and Indiana Avenue, and they are hoping other Lubbock stores will soon follow.

“When [Caden] was telling me at his last visit how he was going to bring some boxes of cool Band-Aids next time, we came up with this idea,” Michelle Garcia said. “I figured he's got enough people that keep up with him we could put it to good use. It's something so simple and easy for anyone to participate in.”
Anyone interested in donating child-friendly bandages in assorted colors and patterns and/or depicting popular characters may bring them to the OB-GYN laboratory at TTUHSC. A box has been set up inside Room 3B207.