CHOP holds 12th annual prom for patients

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Prom season means music, dancing and fun. For more than 100 patients at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia it means a night way from the trials and tribulations of their medical conditions.

FOX 29's Bruce Gordon was there for the night to remember.

They work the red carpet like Hollywood royalty--illness and injury may have taken their lives off-script, but one night each spring more than a 100 patients gather in the cafeteria at CHOP. Many wear dresses donated for this event for what most want most of all--a normal night out.

Welcome to the CHOP Prom, founded and mostly funded by Jeff Kahan, who lost his son Josh to cancer back in 1997, but still remembers how good it feels to make a frown disappear. This is fun--family style moms and dads join their kids if only to see those smiles that Jeff Kahan talked about.

Come Friday, these kids will be back in their hospital beds, worrying about their next dose of medicine, their next shot, their next surgery. In short it's back reality. But for least for one night-- this night-- they're just like any other kid, remembering their moves and forgetting their troubles.