Live Like Cameron is a local charity run by Melissa Fulling and her family. In 2009, Melissa lost her son Cameron to brain cancer. It was after her loss that she was inspired to start this organization. At the time there were no other organizations in Flagler that worked with families who had children suffering from cancer.
Live Like Cameron has two programs; they financially help out the families in Flagler who have children suffering from cancer, and they have what they call bags of hope. Bags of hope are bags filled with comfort items for the kids while they are in the hospital. They currently serve the Jacksonville and Orlando hospitals. Right now the financial aspect of their organization is struggling; they are looking for more sponsors who would be able to help donate to Live Like Cameron and their mission.
There are a lot of kids in Flagler County that have childhood cancer. There are 37 families in Flagler County that have children suffering from cancer. “Even if you can’t financially help these families, just being there to support these kids and letting them know that you care is a big part,” said Melissa.
Melissa told us that she would love to grow the sibling aspect; many times when you have a child with cancer the siblings get left behind, even the parents too. “We try to incorporate the siblings and the parents as well. We had the Christmas here at Good Vibes Nutrition of Palm Coast and we included the siblings on that,” Melissa explained.
Melissa explained that this is a tough situation for families, as many times a parent has to stop working which can cause financial stresses on top of the stress from this situation. Currently they have four events that Live Like Cameron puts on to fundraise: two golf tournaments, Shave for the Brave and a 5K run/walk. The community can also look up a wish list for people who wish to donate items for the bags of hopes on their website here. The rodeo has also chosen Live Like Cameron to be their charity again for 2024. Melissa is always welcoming of any ideas for new fundraising events to help benefit their cause at Live Like Cameron.
Live Like Cameron is 100% volunteer based, no one takes any form of paycheck. Cameron, is the inspiration for this organization, and Melissa told us how Cameron was always such a happy boy, no matter what he faced during his battle; he just loved life.
