Harper Harrell was just eight years old and in third grade at E.K. Powe Elementary when life took an unexpected turn.
“I had just gone back to third grade after masks and COVID for a really long time, and it was a masked time still, and I had headaches every single day and, at the same time was very fatigued. I didn't really like eating. I was really tired all the time. I would fall asleep on the couch after school, and then I'd be able to fall asleep at night, which is not normal for me,” she said. “So, we went to the doctor two times, and they told one time I had a minor ear infection and both times it was because of masks and adjusting to being masked at school after so long off.”
But her mom, Heather Hindin, took her to another doctor who ran some more tests, and Harper was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
She was admitted to Duke Children’s Hospital to begin a grueling two-year treatment plan.
“The treatment was 864 days,” Harper explained. “I did get the all-clear in February 2024. The all-clear is when you ring the bell, technically. It signifies the end of your treatment, and you don’t have to take any more medicine; you just come up to the floor for checkups.”
She rang the bell at a Duke-Notre Dame men’s basketball game while thousands of people cheered her on and more watched from home on the news. The Duke men's basketball team and the Scheyer family have been big supporters of Harper throughout her journey.
Harper will officially be considered cancer-free after five years have passed without treatment. However, there has been no cancer detectable in her body as of February 2023.
Her mother, Heather Hindin, remembers the earliest days of the journey. “One thing that was like a small ray of sunshine within the first 24 hours of diagnosis was that we had a knock on her door our first morning in the hospital, and it was the former media specialist from E.K. Powe who worked at the Hospital School,” she said. “Harper was able to maintain all of the curriculum and stay aligned with her class. And when she was ready to go back, she was right where she left off.”
The Hospital School is administered by Durham Public Schools inside Duke Hospital, and it provides instruction in a hospital setting, at the bedside, or other locations within the hospital for children who are 3-years-old through 12th grade. DPS certified teachers provide instruction designed for the needs of the student.
Throughout treatment, Harper showed resilience beyond her years – and she began finding ways to give back even when she was still a patient herself. She created a “Peace Out Cancer” t-shirt design, selling it to raise money for the V Foundation’s pediatric cancer research. Her efforts raised $24,000.
Her own experience during treatment planted the seed for what would become Harper’s Home.
(Photo courtesy of 2+3 Photography)
“In 2008, I bought my home, which is less than two miles from Duke Children's, not knowing how important that would be someday,” Heather recalled. “If we were in the hospital for weeks at a time, or for an 11-hour day, to be able to call my mom and be like, ‘Hey, we're ready,’ and then to be home within 15 minutes was a luxury that a lot of people didn’t have. Being able to go home, feeling crummy, having been through serious trauma, to sleep on your own bed with your dog – all of these creature comforts – that’s huge.”
Many of the families they met during treatment traveled long distances to come to Duke Children’s and struggled to find appropriate housing. Either the housing did not have the protections that their medically compromised children needed, or the housing cost them tens of thousands of dollars over the course of treatment. Programs like Ronald McDonald House had extensive waiting lists and restrictions on who could stay.
It is especially important for families to be close to the hospital during critical times when they need specific medicines within a short period of time.
“That three- to four-mile radius of Duke Children’s does not have a whole lot of options that are affordable, safe, or family friendly,” Heather said. “I live not very far up the road.”
Looking at her own nearby property and realizing they had plenty of land that they could offer up, she and Harper began laying the groundwork for Harper’s Home, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free, comfortable, family-friendly housing near Duke Children’s Hospital. By March 2024, the nonprofit had official status, and at the beginning of September, their first homes were ready for families to move in. A local builder provided two homes for lease on a property not far from Heather’s, and community support helped clear an Amazon wish list for home furnishings and personal touches for families, like Mario bedsheets for a child with a love for the classic Nintendo character.
They wanted every detail to matter, ensuring that the homes felt like personal spaces, with all the items the families would need: A washer and dryer, wheelchair accessibility, a kitchen to make SpaghettiOs and other favorites at any hour.
(Photo courtesy of 2+3 Photography)
“It's unimaginably difficult to deal with medical trauma and crises,” Heather said. “If you're doing that, you need to be focusing on your kid. Worrying about where you're going to sleep should not even check the top ten.”
Families are connected to Harper’s Home through social workers at the hospital, and they are not charged for their stay. A $25 per night donation is suggested for those who would like to contribute, but no one is required to pay it, and no one is ever turned away for an inability to donate.
For one of the first families to stay at one of the homes, the news meant that not only did they have reliable place to stay during treatment, but also that they would not have to sell their home in order to pay for it. The news became a celebration of preserving the family home.
Looking ahead, Harper’s Home has plans to build cottages and duplexes on Heather’s property, eventually serving eight families at a time. Long term, Heather and Harper envision Harper’s Home expanding to other communities, but Heather says they want to make sure they’re doing it “really well here first.”
“Our story could have ended much, much differently, and we know many people whose story did end differently,” Heather said. “I feel like we have a responsibility to help other people. We have purpose, and we put our whole heart into it, so it doesn't feel like work. It feels like a gift.”
For Harper, now a seventh grader at Brogden, it’s about helping other kids experience some of the same comforts she did during her treatment, when she could come home to her puppy, Jimmers, and sleep in her own bed. She continues her activism with the V Foundation, serving on the All-Star Courageous Kids Cancer Team and helping to raise money for research. She has served as a Duke Children’s Patient Ambassador, and she currently serves as the Children’s Miracle Network Local Champion, representing the hospital at events throughout 40 counties in North Carolina.
In her free time, she rides horses and dreams of becoming a vet one day. But mostly, she likes being at home with her mom and her pets – where she is most comfortable.