Lindsey Belcher, R.N. Johns Hopkins

Full Circle at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital

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A nurse who overcame leukemia as a patient at Johns Hopkins All Children’s is now back on the hospital’s oncology unit, caring for kids who are fighting similar battles.

Two-year-old Shelby is wearing her dinner.

Around here, that’s completely OK.

Lindsey Belcher, R.N., has just breezed into the young patient’s room on the hematology-oncology floor of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.

Shelby is digging into a plate of spaghetti. She’s here for chemotherapy treatment.

But this toddler doesn’t care about all that. She’s just happy to see Lindsey.

“Shelby, girl! How are you?”

Shelby’s face lights up with a spaghetti-sauced smile.

Lindsey steers the pasta into her mouth and moves seamlessly into checking her vital signs as she keeps Shelby in giggles.

There’s no reason this can’t be fun, right?

As a pediatric oncology nurse, Lindsey’s connection to these kids is apparent.

“It lights my heart up to walk into a patient’s room and they’re excited to see me,” Lindsey says.

History

There’s another reason for this special connection.

In 2007, when Lindsey was 7 years old, she was a patient at All Children’s, battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Lindsey’s family rallied around her, but her medical journey was not easy.

Her father, Charley Belcher, a feature reporter on Fox 13-TV’s morning show, remembers the hardship, but he gained a deep understanding of how clinical staff can make a difference.

“It was the most difficult time in our lives,” Belcher says. “But the care there was so amazing. I described the people there as ‘wingless angels.’”

Lindsey got well, and as she got older, there were career decisions to make.

Could she come full circle — to treat children in the same place she was once a sick child herself?

It all began to make sense.

Coming Home

Lindsey remembers the first moment as a new nurse when she realized she was right where she was supposed to be. She found herself comforting a young patient.

“I held her hands. I helped her control her breathing, and wiped her tears away,” Lindsey says. “When I left that room, I realized that I had just given to her what others had given to me all those years ago.”

Being a pediatric oncology nurse requires compassion, medical expertise, communication skills and, in the worst of times, the resilience to cope with loss.

Lindsey credits her co-workers for sustaining her.

“I’m surrounded by an amazing work family,” Lindsey says.

Day is Done

Lindsey makes her way down the hall and knocks softly on the door of 7-year-old Samantha (Sami).

Dressed in her pajamas, Sami sees Lindsey and reflexively reaches out for her.

After rocking her gently, they begin to dance around the room.

For a moment, there is no chemotherapy, no pain or fear. Just these friends.

After a little while, Lindsey leaves the patient’s room and moves on down the hall … just one more “wingless angel” doing what she’s meant to do.

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*Presented by Johns Hopkins All Children’s | Originally published in the May 2025 issue of Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine.