‘Don’t give up on them’: Mother of Eldridge boy with cancer encourages community to keep donating to legitimate fundraisers

ELDRIDGE, Iowa (KWQC) - The mother of an Eldridge boy fighting cancer is encouraging the community to keep donating to legitimate cancer patients after a Bettendorf woman falsified a cancer diagnosis and accepted thousands of dollars in donations.

TV6 spoke with Jessica McKearney, the mother of 5-year-old Hudson, who is fighting cancer about advocacy and fundraising work done through the foundation named after him - the Hudson Strong Foundation.

McKearney said it’s important for people to keep supporting fundraisers of those actually fighting the disease.

“When Hudson was diagnosed in March of 2019 we were swamped by support from our community and we truly could not have done it without the kind words, the monetary donations, the meal drop-off’s. So, I can’t stress enough how important it is to continue standing behind these kids and fighting with them and rallying with them, and just being there for these families,” said McKearney, “We couldn’t have done it without the support so I just can’t encourage people enough to not forget about them and don’t give up on them and just - believe that there are some families out there that are struggling and they still need us.”

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