Channahon Family Honors Son’s Memory and Benefits Children with Cancer

A Channahon Family is honoring their son's memory by making a difference for other children fighting cancer. The Degnan family lost their 9-year-old son Austin who succumbed to his three-year battle with Osteosarcoma on October 4, 2021. Austin was treated at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

In honor of Austin Degnan’s 11th birthday on July 26, 2023, his mom Carrie decided to ask her loved ones to drop off or ship toys, gift cards and teen items to her home in Channahon. The items will be donated to support the Treasure Chest Foundation, the organization that helped Austin during his cancer treatment. During the month of July, the second annual “Austin’s Army Annual Toy Drive” collected a truckload of toys and teen items along with $230 in gift cards for kids just like Austin fighting cancer.

Carrie Degnan, Austin’s mom said, “The Treasure Chest was one of my son’s highlights during his hospital visits and stays. This is a wonderful way to remember Austin and celebrate him. I hope to keep coming back to give as I know what it is like to have a child go through battling cancer. The Treasure Chest Foundation is an amazing group!”

POTCF Founder and CEO Colleen Kisel said, “We are blessed to have the support of the Degnan family and friends. We do not have words to fully express just how sorry we are about what happened to young Austin but grateful to have the Degnan family and friend's support.”

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 16,100 young cancer patients in 66 cancer treatment centers in 21 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. Colleen Kisel founded the organization in 1996 after her then seven-year-old son Martin had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. Ms. Kisel discovered that giving her son a toy after each procedure provided a calming distraction from his pain, noting that when children are diagnosed with cancer their world soon becomes filled with doctors, nurses, chemotherapy drugs, surgeries and seemingly endless painful procedures. Martin celebrated his 30th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of this year.

If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 1-708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.

Photo Caption (L-R): Brothers of Austin, Gavin Degnan (age 4), Jayden Degnan (age 12), mother Carrie Degnan and great-grandma Janice Hudek at the Treasure Chest Foundation’s Orland Park warehouse, display a truckload of toys and $230 of gift cards collected during the Second Annual “Austin’s Army Annual Toy Drive” remembering Austin’s 11th birthday celebration.