Stacy Wakefield Continued to Visit Kids With Cancer Even as Disease Overcame Her: ‘So Compassionate’

Stacy Wakefield died from cancer this week, five months after her husband and former MLB star Tim Wakefield did

A new report sheds light on the philanthropic final months of Stacy Wakefield’s life.

The Boston Red Sox announced earlier this week that Stacy, the widow of late MLB pitcher Tim Wakefield, died from cancer this week five months after her husband succumbed to the same disease.

In a statement through the team, the Wakefield family remembered Stacy as “a strong, loving, thoughtful and kind person, who was as down-to-earth as they come.” And now a new story from the Associated Press has highlighted just what the family meant.

The Wakefields reportedly made an annual visit to the Dana Farber Children’s Hospital in Boston each Christmas. Tim and Stacy would bring gifts for the children battling cancer there and speak with their families, offering a brief reprieve during the holidays.

Stacy and her World Series champion-husband even began to bring their daughter Brianna to their annual holiday visits when she was just 7 years old.

Two months after Tim died from cancer last October, Stacy and her daughter reached out to the hospital to schedule their 2023 Christmas visit — never breaking stride with the family’s selfless tradition, despite Tim’s recent death and the fight against cancer Stacy was in the midst of herself.

“When Tim had passed, talking with both of them, they both still wanted to do Christmas,” Lisa Scherber, the director of patient and family programs at the hospital, told the AP. “I was like, ‘OK, we’ll see how it goes. I don’t think that’s going to be top on your mind.’ And sure enough, the second week in December they texted me and were like, ‘Can we come in?’ And here they are, they come into the Jimmy Fund Clinic with gifts for everybody.”

Related: Tim Wakefield's Widow Stacy Dies 5 Months After the Boston Red Sox Pitcher

Scherber recalls Stacy being in a “very tough time in her treatment” during the visit, but she pushed through. The hospital official describes Stacy as a “powerhouse” and a “Mama Bear” in her interview with the news service, recalling the visit.

The hospital director also took note of Brianna, now 17, taking on a larger role with her mother’s condition.

“She was so compassionate, so caring and gentle with these kids,” Scherber told the AP. “I know she grew up doing this, but this was the first time she was doing it without her parents. ... When they finished I was talking to Stacy and she was beaming. That’s really who Stacy was. She knew this was important for Brianna to do. And she struggled to get in here and make it happen.”

Scherber added: “She put herself last. She put herself in a position where everyone else’s happiness came first.”

Related: Former Red Sox Pitcher Tim Wakefield Dead at 57: 'Devoted Husband, Father and Teammate'

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Stacy and Tim are survived by their teenage children Brianna and son Trevor, 19.

“We feel so lucky to have had her in our lives, and we take comfort in the fact that she will be reunited with Tim, the love of her life,” the family said this week.

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