• Special Love
    A community of support for children with cancer and their families
  • November 16 - November 17
    Parents’ Getaway Weekend 2024
  • December 8 12:00pm - December 8 3:00pm
    Holiday Party

Programs for

About Us

“The hospitals saved my son’s life, but Special Love saved his soul.”



Special Love provides a strong, nurturing environment for children with cancer and their families through its free camps and getaway weekends, emergency financial assistance, virtual programs, and educational scholarships for young adults who have beaten cancer and now want to move on with their lives.

Camp Fantastic, our cornerstone program for 7-17 year-old cancer patients, is considered a protocol within the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and has made Special Love a recognized National Institutes of Health (NIH) charity.

Since our inception in 1983, children have come to Special Love from the Washington metropolitan area and from all across the country thanks to our partnership with the NIH and other area hospitals.

Each year, Special Love serves hundreds of children, teens, and young adults ages birth to 30 years old and their families.

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Patients

Camps/Programs

Every year, Special Love welcomes hundreds of pediatric cancer patients, ages 7 to 17, to our camps and adventure programs. Each one provides time away from the hospital and its strict schedules, as well as the pain and isolation that come with cancer treatment. Programs are designed to provide a place to laugh, play, share with new and old friends, and even take a few healthy risks. A place where they can just be kids.

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Siblings

Camps/Programs

BRASS is designed specifically for the siblings of pediatric cancer patients, as well as bereaved siblings. BRASS offers them a place for open, honest dialog with other campers and counselors to ensure they too are enveloped in a strong support system where they can put the family trauma of cancer away to spend time being a kid, In an environment where the focus is completely on them. The importance BRASS plays in the siblings’ lives is significant; so much so that most camp counselors, as well as counselors-in-training, are former BRASS campers themselves.

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Family

Camps/Programs

Quality family time is one of the hardest things for a family to find when their child has cancer. They need that time to reconnect as a family, share some fun and laughter, and strengthen their bond during a stressful time. Special Love’s family programs are designed to do just that, by hosting opportunities throughout the year.

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Next Program

Parents’ Getaway Weekend 2024

  • November 16 - November 17
  • Hyatt Regency

Parents Getaway Weekend is a weekend solely for the parents of patients and survivors who are 25 years old or younger and still live at home, as well as bereaved […]

Upcoming Programs

Dec 8 2024

Holiday Party

  • December 8 12:00pm - December 8 3:00pm
  • Pearl Street Warehouse

Kick-off the Holiday Season with Special Love. Join us for a visit from Santa, fun gifts, face painters, balloon artists, good food, and a great time with great people! More […]



Mar 21 2025

BRASS Weekend

  • March 21 - March 23
  • Northern Virginia 4-H Educational and Conference Center


All Programs

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