Nicholas Marriam, the London Towne 8-year-old who has snapped back from his near-fatal battle with cancer, is giving something back.

Dressed up as a doctor, he waltzed into Children's Hospital in Washington Oct. 27 bearing gifts for the kids on the oncology ward, supper for their parents and loads of good cheer.

The gesture brought tears to the staff, the stricken and their families.

"A few years ago I was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma and had to spend a lots of time there," said Nicholas, who speaks with uncanny maturity. After two years of chemotherapy, he got the "all clear" from doctors last March.

"I had to grow up very fast and go through a lot of scary things," he said. "And it was lonely because you are far away from home and don't go to school or get out much because of germs."

Nicholas approached several area companies to help with the project and got donations from Coca-Cola, Papa John's Pizza, the Washington Capitals and others.

He asked fellow third-graders at Edgewater Elementary School to make gift bags to give to the cancer kids at the hospital. His classmates made over 100 of them, filled with trinkets and goodies.

"We had so many bags we were blessed to move to two other wards, and even the emergency room," Nick's mom, Angel Marriam, said.

"We watched the parents' faces as the kids' eyes lit up at the sight of visitors bearing gifts," she said, "and the looks of hope that this will be their child someday, full of strength and a full head of hair."

Plans for the effort were well under way before they figured out it was also national Make a Difference Day.

So to express the some thanks he feels for making him better, Nick had buttons made for the staff and parents that read, "I make a difference every day."

More heartstrings were tugged as he and his mom watched a line of parents file into a room to share a supper of pizza and deli platters they set up.

"We were proud to see them get a bite to eat that did not come from a vending machine at 3 a.m." Mrs. Marriam said.

Staff members and parents broke down, she reported, at the thought that another child would want to do this.

"I felt really good inside about making the kids smile, and all that work made other people feel good," said Nick.

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Published November 06, 2001, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2001 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.