About us
It started with paper and crayons
Hearts4Hands is a student-led group. We make cards for patients in hospitals, publish stories written by volunteers, and raise money for cancer research.
Our story
Why We Started Hearts4Hands
In 2021, my grandfather passed away from cancer. But losing him wasn't what hurt the most.
What hurt was watching him disappear years before that — in the summers I spent at his apartment in India. He was the man who sat with me at the dinner table while I drew, painted, and made bracelets, content just reading beside me. He taught me to ride a bike. He sat with me in silence on the nights my parents came home late from work, just so I wouldn't be alone. Cancer took all of that first. By the time I actually lost him, I had already lost the dada ji I remembered.
Over the next five years, I watched family friends fight the same disease — receiving far better treatment here in the U.S. than my grandfather ever had in India. I watched my parents sit with them the way my grandfather once sat with me, listening as they relived experiences no one should have to go through alone.
A patient deserves support. So do the people who love them.
Most of my creativity came from the quiet hours I spent with my grandfather. Hearts4Hands exists to send that same creativity back out — to patients who need someone in their corner, the way he was always in mine. But he wouldn't want us to stop at patients. He'd want us supporting families too, which is why we built a blog where families can find what to expect, what to do, and proof that they're not alone.
Our creativity is our courage against cancer. It can be yours too.
Milestones
How far we have come
Short version: it is early days, and that is the fun part.
The spark
One card at a time
Hearts4Hands began with a simple idea: a patient in a hospital bed should get mail that makes them laugh.
Growing
Volunteers everywhere
Students from different countries started making cards on their own kitchen tables and mailing photos of them in.
Now
Cards, stories, and research
We make cards, publish volunteer-written stories about cancer, and raise money that goes straight to materials and research.
What we believe
Four things we will not trade away
Handmade beats perfect
A crooked heart drawn by a twelve-year-old lands better than anything printed. We never ask a volunteer to make it neater.
Every patient gets the same care
We do not sort patients by diagnosis, hospital, or country. If a card can reach them, they are on the list.
Show the money
Donations are split between materials and cancer research, and the split is printed on the Donate page. If the numbers change, so does the page.
Volunteers run this
There is no head office. The people making cards, editing stories, and organizing chapters are students doing it around school.
The team
Who is behind this
The students who run Hearts4Hands — plus a few roles we are still trying to fill.
Applications for chapter presidents, editors, and more are open on the same page.
Who we are for
Three kinds of people keep this going
Students, anywhere
You do not need to live near us, or near a hospital. Volunteers make cards at their own kitchen tables and log the hours from wherever they are.
Hospitals and partner organizations
If you work with patients in treatment and want cards, tell us how many and how you would like them delivered. We will work to your rules, not ours.
Donors and sponsors
Small gifts buy paper and postage. Larger ones go to cancer research. Either way you get to see the split.
Run a hospital program, a school club, or a company that wants to help?
Partner with usTwo ways in
Make a card and log the hour, or send a few dollars toward paper and research. Both count.