Shine On! Kids offers support and encouragement to very ill children and their families around Japan. While Japan boasts one of the best medical systems in the world, it lags behind in the area of patient support. SOK is striving to redefine this concept in Japan.

Shine On! Kids was created by Kimberly Forsyth and Mark Ferris after their experience here with their infant son, Tyler. The little boy spent most of his short life battling leukemia.

"After they lost Tyler, Kim and Mark realized there were many ways to take Tyler's struggles and their experience and create something positive for families going through what they had endured," says Miho Neely, SOK's general manager. "When the organization was founded 11 years ago, there was very little in the way of psychosocial support in hospitals for children and their parents."