Teen with Rare Cancer Used His Make-A-Wish Gift to Support Children Still Fighting
Apr 24, 2026 by apost team
For children in cancer treatment, comfort can become part of survival. Hospital routines are demanding, appetite often disappears, and side effects can make even simple meals difficult. At UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Duncan Simmons understood that reality firsthand after he was diagnosed in January 2024 with Burkitt leukemia, a fast-growing B-cell cancer, and underwent about six months of intensive chemotherapy. UPMC says he later reached remission and returned to school and everyday life.
Medical guidance from the National Cancer Institute notes that oral complications such as mucositis can make eating painful during cancer care, helping explain why familiar foods can matter so much to young patients and their families. In pediatric oncology, small choices can restore a sense of control, dignity and normalcy in an environment largely defined by uncertainty. For many families, a favorite meal can represent a brief return to ordinary life amid an exhausting medical routine.
That experience shaped Simmons’ response when he became eligible for a wish through Make-A-Wish. Instead of choosing a trip or gift for himself, he directed the opportunity toward other children in treatment. The result was Duncan’s Diner, a fund created through the UPMC Children’s Hospital Foundation to provide food-delivery gift cards for pediatric patients on the hospital’s hematology-oncology floor.
The goal is simple and deeply practical: give children access to meals they actually want, especially during long hospital stays and difficult nights. The story resonates because it turns a personal milestone into shared relief. Rather than celebrating recovery with a private reward, Simmons chose to create comfort for families still inside the system he had just left.
Burkitt lymphoma and Burkitt leukemia are different forms of the same aggressive mature B-cell disease, according to specialists at the National Cancer Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Because the illness can progress quickly, treatment usually begins promptly and relies on combination chemotherapy. For Simmons, the physical toll included hospital stays and painful mouth sores that made eating harder, according to UPMC’s account of his treatment journey.
That memory became the foundation for Duncan’s Diner. Coverage from CBS Pittsburgh, WPXI and TribLive reports that the program helps hospitalized children order meals such as pizza, Chinese food or other comfort foods when standard options feel limiting. The same reports say support for the initiative has included contributions tied to Make-A-Wish, DoorDash and Sheetz.
The UPMC Children’s Hospital Foundation describes the campaign as a way to fund meal-delivery gift cards for patients receiving care on the ninth-floor hematology-oncology unit. In practical terms, the project addresses a need that hospitals cannot always solve through standard menus alone: personal preference, timing and the emotional value of familiar food.
The strongest part of the story is its clarity: Simmons did not try to turn hardship into inspiration in the abstract. He answered a specific problem with a specific kindness. A child in treatment may not remember every medication name or medical term, but they will remember the feeling of getting a meal that tastes like home. In that sense, Duncan’s Diner is more than a charitable idea.
It is a patient-informed act of care, shaped by someone who knew exactly what was missing and decided to fill that gap for someone else. That is why the project lands with such emotional force: it is generous, useful and rooted in lived experience rather than symbolism alone.
apost.com
Small acts of comfort can make an enormous difference during medical treatment. What would you have chosen to turn one wish into help for others? Pass this story along to someone who believes kindness should be practical, personal and shared.