Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Nicky Van Voreen | President of the Welfare League Tells Her Story of Perseverance

Transcript

Nicky Van Voreen | President of the Welfare League Tells Her Story of Perseverance · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In August of 2026, she hosted, it was called the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Annual Wellfare League Summer Celebration in Teals, New York. And
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: she's trying to get this organization as much exposure as possible. Well, Nikki,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: good morning. How are you?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me, Sid. I'm doing great.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good. Tell everybody exactly what you endured as a nine-year-old
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  Speaker 1: that got us to this day.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: So when I was nine years old, I had an astrocytoma.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: So I was diagnosed with brain cancer.
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  Speaker 1: What were some of the symptoms that you were suffering
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  Speaker 1: through when this came about? What was happening with you?
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  Speaker 2: I just started having headaches.
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  Speaker 1: Headaches? Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, I just had a seizure.
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  Speaker 1: You had a seizure? Yeah. And where were you? Were
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  Speaker 1: there parents?
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  Speaker 2: I was actually at the doctor's office because I was
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  Speaker 2: having an asthma attack.
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  Speaker 1: So you had asthma, and then now you're having a seizure,
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  Speaker 1: and it turns out to be this brain issue.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then they took me to the hospital, and
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  Speaker 3: when they did the scan, they realized there was a
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  Speaker 3: mass in my brain.
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  Speaker 1: Mass in your brain, and it was malignant, obviously.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so at that point, you have to have this
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  Speaker 1: thing removed. You're nine years old. You're a little girl.
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  Speaker 1: Now they got to literally remove part of your brain, right? Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: It was so scary because all I remember is the
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  Speaker 3: doctor saying, you know, your chances are not high.
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  Speaker 1: You remember the doctor saying that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and one of the other doctors came in, which
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  Speaker 3: was a phenomenal doctor, and he said, you know what?
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  Speaker 2: You're out of our team. Because I was petrified. I
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: thought I was going to die.
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  Speaker 1: What did your parents think?
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  Speaker 2: We came from Chile. And they had just learned the language.
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  Speaker 2: And they were petrified.
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  Speaker 1: They were so scared. From South America.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And here you are in a hospital in, I guess,
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  Speaker 1: in Rockland County.
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  Speaker 2: It was Westchester Medical Center.
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  Speaker 1: Westchester Medical Center. And you're nine years old. And they're
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  Speaker 1: telling you you may die. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I was so scared.
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  Speaker 1: So you came out of the operation. You're alive. And then...
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  Speaker 1: How many weeks or months or years did you have
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  Speaker 1: to endure side effects, issues after the surgery?
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  Speaker 3: It was terrible for me because I was extremely intelligent
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  Speaker 3: when I was little and I realized how much I
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  Speaker 3: had suffered. And I still remember standing in front of
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  Speaker 3: the mirror and I said to myself, my God, I
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  Speaker 3: look like a monster. And everything just changed from there.
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  Speaker 3: I started having so many cognitive issues, memory issues, and
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  Speaker 3: it just became very hard for me.
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  Speaker 1: What about depression, any of that stuff? Did that all
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: set in?
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  Speaker 2: It was very difficult because everyone made fun of me.
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  Speaker 1: They made fun of you. You told me this. You
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  Speaker 1: were bullied quite a bit. You were harassed quite a bit.
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  Speaker 1: And they made fun of you.
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  Speaker 4: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because you had scars and issues?
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  Speaker 2: Because I had scars. I was overweight. And I just,
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  Speaker 2: I had a hard time remembering anything.
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  Speaker 1: Anything? Yeah. Yeah, but that doesn't seem to be the
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  Speaker 1: case now. I mean, I'm not with you. I don't
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  Speaker 1: talk to you all that much. But you seem to
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  Speaker 1: be actually smart, so... Do you have those issues now?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. I was so excited that I was going to
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  Speaker 3: come visit you this morning, so I put my alarm on.
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  Speaker 2: The problem is that I forgot to label it. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, my God, my alarm went off, but
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  Speaker 2: where am I going?
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  Speaker 1: So for a second there, you really had no idea.
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  Speaker 1: I know.
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  Speaker 2: I had no idea.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: So you still have these issues today, even today. Yeah. Wow. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: So do you take medication now?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I take a bunch of medication.
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  Speaker 1: Every day?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Just for the brain injury? Yeah. Wow. And how much
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  Speaker 1: of your brain would you say they actually removed?
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  Speaker 3: It was the size of a tennis ball, but then
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  Speaker 3: the rest of it just kind of died off.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean the rest of it died off?
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  Speaker 1: So the cells around the part that they removed just
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  Speaker 1: kind of died? Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: It was kind of like necrotic, and it just kind
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  Speaker 2: of died.
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  Speaker 1: So they have literally, between what they removed and what died,
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  Speaker 1: like half your brain is gone, and yet you're still
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  Speaker 1: smarter than Justin. That's unbelievable. No, Justin's very, very bright.
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  Speaker 1: He's a great boy, too. We love Justin. So you
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  Speaker 1: started this charity how long ago?
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  Speaker 2: About two months ago.
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  Speaker 1: Two months ago? Yeah. That's it? Yeah. What were you
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  Speaker 1: doing for the last 25 years of that old spin?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know because I don't remember.
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  Speaker 1: Have you seen the movie 50 First Dates with Adam
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  Speaker 1: Sandler and Drew Barrymore?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how I feel.
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  Speaker 1: Is that how you really feel?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, every day is a new day.
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  Speaker 1: But you're not as bad as that one guy. It
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  Speaker 1: was a 10-second Bob, a 10-second Tom. He would go, hey,
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  Speaker 1: nice to meet you. And then 10 seconds later, you forget.
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  Speaker 1: You don't have it that bad. I mean, you may forget.
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  Speaker 1: How bad is your memory? Oh, it's terrible.
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  Speaker 3: But the thing is, I get very proud of myself
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  Speaker 3: because I... I put alarms on, but then they go off.
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  Speaker 3: But then the problem is I forget to label them.
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  Speaker 3: So I don't get anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: You have kids too, right? Yeah. So you remember their
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  Speaker 1: names and all that stuff. Well, yeah. Okay. And a husband,
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  Speaker 1: remember his name or?
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  Speaker 2: No, half of the time, I don't know who he is.
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  Speaker 2: I wake up in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: You're not kidding. You're being serious.
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  Speaker 2: No, he laughs. He goes, don't come out of that
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  Speaker 2: room unless you know who I am.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. So is there a certain part of this, though,
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  Speaker 1: that is almost exciting because every day is like really
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  Speaker 1: a new day?
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  Speaker 2: No, I think it's great.
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  Speaker 1: You think it's great? Yeah. Like you seem so happy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, why not?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you've forgotten
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  Speaker 1: everything bad that's happened to you. You seem happy, right?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, your life is pretty good now. Yeah. So
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  Speaker 1: the only thing you really want now moving forward is
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  Speaker 1: to grow this charity, this organization.
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  Speaker 2: I love helping people.
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  Speaker 1: You do?
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  Speaker 2: I do.
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  Speaker 1: And have you found a bunch of people like you
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  Speaker 1: over the last couple of months that were bullied, harassed? Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And with the same type of brain.
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  Speaker 3: Issue or- No, just different types of disabilities. So I
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  Speaker 3: joined the Special Olympics about like two years ago.
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  Speaker 1: You did? Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: How'd you do?
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  Speaker 3: And I still remember walking in and he was very
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  Speaker 3: nice and he said, where is the athlete?
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  Speaker 2: And I said, I'm the athlete. He goes, you are?
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So that's been my biggest problem with this disability is
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  Speaker 3: that nobody realizes.
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  Speaker 1: Because you look good. You look normal. I can't see
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  Speaker 1: the scars right now. I can't see any of that.
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  Speaker 2: That's been the hardest part.
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  Speaker 1: So my son, for example, has a disability, my son Gabriel,
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  Speaker 1: who's an angel, and he's got something called dysproxia. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, 99% of his life, you'd never know he
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  Speaker 1: had anything. He has trouble buttoning his shirt. When he runs,
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  Speaker 1: you can see it's not perfect, you know. But 99%
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  Speaker 1: of the time, they're like, what's wrong with this kid?
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  Speaker 1: So then my wife and I started this charity, and
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  Speaker 1: we've raised a lot of money, thank God, because I
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  Speaker 1: have very nice friends. But it's kind of the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: You know, certain issues, you just see it, right? You
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  Speaker 1: can tell. With you, I really can't see anything. And
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  Speaker 1: even when you speak, you're funny, you're good, you're smart.
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  Speaker 1: So I wouldn't even know there's something wrong with you.
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  Speaker 1: Except when this interview is over, you'll have no idea
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  Speaker 1: who I am, do you?
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 1: You can't make this up. She's not even kidding.
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  Speaker 3: That's why I need you to sign something so that
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  Speaker 3: I'll be like, oh, well, I came here.
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  Speaker 4: Ha.
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  Speaker 2: At least I have a souvenir.
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  Speaker 1: No, I know.
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  Speaker 2: I hang it up in the wall.
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  Speaker 1: So do you have any family members that are listening
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  Speaker 1: to this right now? Or friends?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I hope so. I told them, I think.
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  Speaker 1: You told them, you don't remember. Okay. So then when
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  Speaker 1: your interview is over here, you get in a car,
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  Speaker 1: you go back to Rockland County, and then what happens
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the day? In your life, what does
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  Speaker 1: a day look like?
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  Speaker 2: Then I love going outside.
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  Speaker 1: You like going outside. I love it.
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  Speaker 2: I love going hiking.
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  Speaker 3: Like I said, majority of the last two months, it's
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  Speaker 3: been my devotion of trying to get this organization going
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  Speaker 3: to helping people.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you wrote a very nice letter to President Trump,
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  Speaker 1: which he sent to me, which I did text the president,
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  Speaker 1: just so you know, I promised I would. And I did.
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  Speaker 1: I sent that letter to the president. I can't guarantee
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  Speaker 1: he looked at it. He did. He's going to do something.
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  Speaker 1: But I did do that. But knowing that Mike Lawler
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  Speaker 1: is on your side, who I call the king of
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  Speaker 1: Rockland County, Mr. Salt, that's a big deal.
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  Speaker 2: He's been amazing.
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  Speaker 1: He has been.
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  Speaker 2: He's been.
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  Speaker 3: Since the moment that I walked through those doors, He
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  Speaker 3: welcomed me with open arms.
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  Speaker 1: He's a great guy.
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  Speaker 3: He's always been a great friend. He's always said, anything
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  Speaker 3: that you need, I'm more than happy to help you.
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  Speaker 3: When he found out that I was having this event,
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  Speaker 3: he actually moved his schedule around, and they were able
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  Speaker 3: to fit him in to come to this event.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't that awesome? Did you have a couple hundred people
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  Speaker 1: there that day? What was the turnout?
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  Speaker 2: It was about at least 400.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. You did great. My friend Dimitri was
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  Speaker 1: probably there. He keeps calling me in Rockland County. I
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: know you had a phone call back there, Dimitri. So
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  Speaker 1: the local politicians are helping you. The people are helping you.
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  Speaker 1: Are you in a new city? Where are you exactly?
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  Speaker 2: Where do I live?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I live in Suffern.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, Suffern. Okay. In fact, when I went to see
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  Speaker 1: Mike Lawler about a month and a half ago and
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  Speaker 1: President Trump came, that was in Suffern.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was sitting right in front of President Trump.
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  Speaker 1: That's where I met you. Yeah. I met you that day.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't remember. See, now I don't remember. There
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: you go. Okay, folks. So maybe we got the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: No, but I remember because I have a picture.
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  Speaker 1: I know. And Justin said, this young lady met you.
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  Speaker 1: She said you were very nice, which is no surprise.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a nice guy. And she said, you know, that
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  Speaker 1: she told you about the whole thing and you wanted
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  Speaker 1: to help her, which again, no surprise. I do want
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: to help you. And that's how this whole thing came about.
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  Speaker 1: So we met there with that big Rockland County, President Trump,
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  Speaker 1: big day, right? Yeah. So you're right there in front
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  Speaker 1: of President Trump. Did you like that?
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  Speaker 2: I loved it.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: You love Trump, right?
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love him.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And I really want to meet him.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Well, that one is going to be difficult.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: Let's see what we can do. Is that your lifelong
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: dream at this point to meet President Trump? You know
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: what it is?
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  Speaker 3: It's not even about him being the president. It's because
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  Speaker 3: I think he's just.
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  Speaker 2: A great person.
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  Speaker 1: Great guy.
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  Speaker 3: The fact that he always gets up no matter what,
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  Speaker 3: all the criticism that he gets and how negative people
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: speak about him.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: I think he's just a great person.
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  Speaker 1: Which you could appreciate because you went through all that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I hated being bullied and people always spoke bad about
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  Speaker 3: me even though they didn't even know me. And that's
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  Speaker 3: why my dream is to grow this organization. But I
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: want to be different than any other organization because that
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: day I was really happy with the event.
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  Speaker 2: Seeing all those people come through those doors made me smile.
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  Speaker 2: The fact that they were coming from all over the place.
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  Speaker 2: My biggest flaw was that day.
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  Speaker 3: I want to make an organization that it's, yes, it's
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: united and it's inclusive, but I want to make it
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  Speaker 3: for every single individual because that night I realized that
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  Speaker 3: every single individual, when I had food out, I got sandwiches,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: everyone helped me, and then I realized that some of
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: those people, they couldn't chew. They had diabetes. They had
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  Speaker 3: kidney problems. So I want to be able to have
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  Speaker 3: an organization that I can have somebody in the kitchen
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  Speaker 3: and whatever they need, I can grow it to have
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  Speaker 3: a secretary and they can take.
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  Speaker 2: All their needs.
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  Speaker 3: And for every single person, I want to individualize it.
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  Speaker 3: And if they're diabetic, I want to make something that
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  Speaker 3: it's just for them.
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  Speaker 1: Nice.
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  Speaker 2: That's what I want to do.
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  Speaker 1: So where can people find out more about the organization
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: right now? Are you online or do you have an
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: online address?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's called the Welfare League.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Okay. Welfareleague.org maybe or. com? I know it's a very
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: tough question.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I always give everyone my phone number.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Just go to Google. I would go to Google and
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Google the Welfare League, right? That's the best way to
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: do it. And then they can contact you and find
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: out ways to help, right?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I always.
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  Speaker 3: Like I said, I always give my phone number out.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Your personal number?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I don't really care.
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  Speaker 1: Very bad idea. Very bad idea.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I promise them they'll forget. By the way, it's thewelfareleague.net.
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: Is that right?
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thewelfareleague.net. Nikki, it's thewelfareleague.net. You can remember that, right?
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thewelfareleague.net.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: There you go. If I ask you tomorrow, what would
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the answer be?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: The Welfare League.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: No, I mean, listen, I remembered it, but for some
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: reason I'm throwing a blank at this moment.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm terrible at it.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: No, you're not.
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  Speaker 3: No, it's the Welfare League Empowering the Disability. And you
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: can follow me that way on Facebook.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I think the Welfare League, that's probably easier, don't you?
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: That's the email. Well, listen, they got a nice picture
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: of you there, Nicky, on the website.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: There you go. The president. There you go, the president. And, yeah,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: it looks like a great website. Listen, you've done a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: great job. A little donate button, top right. Donate button,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: give her a couple of bucks. You've done a great job,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: so you should be very proud of yourself. You did
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: a great job here today. The event was great, Lola
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: told me. Your organization is great, and you're going to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: do all these dreams that you have are going to
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: come true, I guarantee you, okay?
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: It's good to see you.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Sid.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: All right, see you. Say, she knew. See that, Lou?
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: She didn't call me Don or Howard. Excellent job. Our
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: name is Nicky Van Voren. Please help her out today. TheWelfareLeague.net.
• 12:12
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• 12:15
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• 12:18
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• 12:37
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• 12:40
  Speaker 4: never have to wonder.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?