Rochester nonprofit offers a helping hand to patients affected by blood cancers
When Woodbury resident Tracy McGarry was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, she and her husband Mike turned to a city 90 miles south for answers. Rochester soon became a second home of sorts — not by choice, but by necessity.
“We were referred to Mayo Clinic by a myeloma specialist in the [Twin] Cities,” recalled Mike. “Every time we’d be down there, we were there for seven days at a time. Tracy was gearing up for a stem cell transplant in the fall of 2017, so we were down there quite a bit.”
Blood cancers like multiple myeloma and leukemia bring many families like the McGarrys to Rochester every year. They seek treatment that may not be available at their hometown hospital, all while trying to navigate a city that’s entirely new to them. The whole experience can be disorienting, and Rochester can start to feel cold to outsiders.
Enter Kristina Wright-Peterson and Red Drop Resources. You may know this organization by their previous name, Med City Foundation, but for their five-year anniversary, Wright-Peterson decided it was time for a change.
She said the new name better reflects what the organization provides.
“The term ‘resources’ really speaks to everything we provide patients,” said Wright-Peterson. “We don’t just provide financial assistance. We don’t just provide assistance with finding a place to stay. We start every conversation with patients in terms of, ‘what do you need help with?’ We don’t tell them what we help with; we ask them what they need.”
A majority of the time, families dealing with blood cancers have not had much time to prepare for a sudden move to Rochester. That means they need income support and a place to stay — fast.
“The blood cancer treatment regimen requires people to stay for 6-8 weeks,” said Wright-Peterson. “That means the patient, plus a caregiver — normally their spouse — are stuck in Rochester, trying to pay for things here with no money coming in.”
Wright-Peterson founded Red Drop Resources in 2014 in honor of her late father, who died in 1995 after a battle with leukemia. She says the nonprofit fills a need that her family had nearly 20 years ago, and working with her mother, Virginia, has been a benefit for both of them.
“It’s therapeutic, because we were one of those families when we went through this with my dad,” said Wright-Peterson. “It’s a way to remember him and talk about him and do something with that memory instead of sitting with it.”
Since its launch, the family has helped hundreds of families — like the McGarrys — adjust to a new normal. That oftentimes means providing support through financial assistance or access to a free apartment space.
Mike also said Kristina was a valuable shoulder to lean on while trying to navigate a new and unfamiliar town.
“It was nice to have somebody who I could talk to, and Kristina was always willing to talk about different areas of Rochester, places to stay, things like that,” said Mike. “She was always willing to go the extra mile, and if she needed more resources to answer my questions, she would do that. I felt like I had someone who I could reach out to.”
The emotional support is an aspect that cannot be understated. Wright-Peterson said she’s seen blood cancer strike families from all over America, and the decision to come to one of the best hospitals in the world isn’t voluntary for a lot of them.
“What we need to realize as a community is that people are not always here by choice and they didn’t always have time to prepare. I get calls all the time from patients that were airlifted here, from North Dakota, from Canada, from other places,” said Wright-Peterson. “Oftentimes, they are arriving with little to nothing and emotionally unprepared.”
Back in Woodbury, Mike said the help Red Drop Resources gave his family will always be remembered.
“For people going through a blood cancer, transplant type situation… I tell people from the Twin Cities and our caregiving group about [Red Drop]. I tell them about the financial aspect, about the apartment aspect… it’s just nice to know they’re a little ways down the road.”
Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.
Editor’s note: We want to thank our members for nominating Red Drop Resources as our featured nonprofit for January. It was with their support that this article was published.
