MAXWELL’S TOY BOX

Dina Besic almost can’t retell the story of the March day last year when she learned that her 2-year-old son Maxwell had leukemia.

“Max is our rainbow baby,” Besic says of her oldest child. “My husband and I had been trying to have a baby for 10 years and of course, during the apocalypse of 2020, we finally found out we were expecting him.”

In spite of the difficulties of having a newborn during COVID-19, the Besics were over the moon. Max was a very easy baby to love.

All had been smooth sailing with their toddler until March 2023 when Max just seemed off.

“Mothers will understand when I say this, but I just knew something wasn’t right,” Besic says. “I knew it was more than just the stuff that’s always going around when you have little ones. But when I took him to urgent care, they just told me that he had the flu.”

Besic accepted this until Max’s fevers wouldn’t subside.

“My husband and I decided to take him to Children’s Advocate in Park Ridge,” she says. “They were so good to us when we got there and quickly put us all at ease. I remember my husband and I having such a fun conversation with the doctor.”

After running some tests, the doctor returned to the Besic’s room.

“Immediately, I knew something was wrong,” Besic remembers. The doctor said, ‘We suspect your son has leukemia.’ I just started screaming at him. I was sure they ran the blood tests wrong, there was no way that what he was saying could be right. I feel so badly thinking about this now—I called him later and apologized, but we were just so shocked. Max was admitted to the pediatric ICU that night. When we got upstairs, there were 13 people waiting for us to discuss his treatment plan. Even after seeing all of those people, it still didn’t seem real.”

In addition to leukemia, Max was suffering from a terrible infection and had almost no immune system to fight it. The Besic family ultimately spent 33 days at Children’s Advocate.

“My husband and I look back on that time and we’re like, how did we do that?” she says of juggling their days with Max, their jobs, and their new baby Lenna who was only six months old at the time.

“Max made it through that dark time because of prayer, family, positivity, and loads of antibiotics,” Besic says. “When we were getting ready to go home, the doctors told us that at the beginning, they weren’t sure Max would get better— he was just so sick. While he was fighting the infection, he started chemo. He went through so much. He was only two years old and trying to explain all of this to a little guy was so hard. It was truly 33 days of uncertainty.”

Since being home, Max has continued his treatment. He’s been back to the hospital seven times. He’s now on a maintenance regimen where he takes an oral chemo medication. And every three months, he is sedated and receives a spinal tap—chemo in his back.

“Watching your child be sedated is so hard,” Besic says. “But when it’s over, Max gets up and is like ‘Mama, what are we doing today?’ And I’m always like, whatever you want.”

It was on one of Max’s many visits to Children’s Advocate when they were waiting in the bright playroom for their appointment that Besic had an idea.

“Max was happily playing, and I said, ‘Max, wouldn’t that toy grocery store we have be great here?’ Or, what about a toy train because he’s obsessed with trains. Max then would say, ‘Mama, go buy?’”

Besic asked her husband what he thought of her putting together an Amazon wish list and sharing it with their family and friends. She posted it on her social media, with no obligation, and quickly received 108 toys. After sprucing up the children’s hospital’s toy room, they had 50 toys left that the Besics gave to the hospital to distribute to other pediatric oncology patients.

“Toys bring a sense of normalcy, childhood, and joy to these amazing kids in the not-so-normal world of cancer. People sometimes associate toys only with fun, but there is a lot of purpose to them. With Maxwell’s Toy Box, we focus on ensuring we provide developmental toys since these kiddos tend to miss 40-50 days of school due to illness, hospitalizations, or appointments. Cancer is incredibly dark and navigating it with your child is so hard,” she says. “No one can really understand what you’re going through unless they’re in your shoes. So, it was really therapeutic for me to look at toys and channel all of our sadness into something positive by bringing little moments of joy to other families. The toys to me were so much more than toys. Collecting them did so much to heal my mind and soul and it felt so good to give back.”

Besic formally organized her toy collection into Maxwell’s Toy Box, a nonprofit organization, in January 2024. As of publication, Maxwell’s Toy Box has collected 1,929 toys and 51 gift cards. It has also distributed 249 goody bags to children receiving treatment filled with things to keep them busy and engaged with their parents. Maxwell’s Toy Box is currently supporting the Children’s Advocate locations in Park Ridge and Oak Lawn, and anticipate making donations to Lurie Children’s Hospital, as well.

“My big, audacious goal is for Maxwell’s Toy Box to be a national nonprofit where we service every pediatric hospital. My hope is to also create an advocacy division where I can bring more awareness to childhood cancer,” says Besic, who has completed advocacy training and met with the offices of Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Congressman Brad Schneider to ensure that Illinois representatives are supporting childhood cancer laws to improve access to treatment. “I’m a childhood cancer advocate because it’s the leading cause of disease-related deaths in children, yet only 8 percent of federal cancer research funding is dedicated to pediatric cancers. Every day, 43 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer—a statistic that demands action. Most treatment options for kids are outdated, relying on therapies developed more than 40 years ago, leaving these children to face devastating side effects and long-term health challenges. One day, we’ll get to a better place with all of this. I’m sure of it.”

To learn more about Maxwell’s Toy Box, how you can host a toy drive, or donate, visit maxwellstoybox.com. Additionally, follow the organization on Instagram @maxwellstoyboxnfp.