MEET SUSAN GEOGHEGAN
Susan is the founder and Executive Director of The Apricity Hope Project. As a medical mama, with two medically complex children, Susan knows just how exhausting it is to be a caregiver, around the clock.
Susan was born and raised in Hampton Roads, Virginia. She is a writer, speaker, and creator who uses grief, hope and sarcasm to create light for those who find themselves on a dark, isolating journey they never expected to be living. Susan has shared her conversations of hope with many audiences, ranging from one-on-one settings to keynote presentations to a TEDx talk. You can hear Susan weekly in her podcast for medical and special needs mamas, the When Autumn Comes Podcast. In 2022 she founded The Apricity Hope Project, a nonprofit organization that cares for caregivers of medically complex children.
While she has accomplished a lot in her life, Susan is most proud of the amazing adventures, endless love, buckets of hope and epic hair she has given to her perfectly imperfect, brave and beautiful children.
HER MOTHERHOOD JOURNEY
In 2016, Suz and her husband Michael welcomed their first child, Lorelei, into the world. Lorelei was born with a slew of medical complexities and spent 77 days in the NICU at Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters. Half way through her NICU stay, they learned they were not just new preemie parents, but they were rare disease parents. Lorelei was born, fighting for her life, due to a rare form of FBXL4 Mitochondrial Disease. She was the 31st documented case of this type of mito in the world. Susan and Michael were told that Lorelei would probably never walk, talk or eat by mouth. They said that it is a 25% of this disease occurring for their children due to an rare recessive gene that both parents carried. Lastly, they were told that they could expect Lorelei to have a life expectancy of 2-5 years.
In 2019, the family welcomed Benji to the family. Benji also has mitochondrial disease. In 2020 when they world was upside down, both Lorelei and Benji were semi-stable and the family made as many memories as possible together as a family of four.
In 2021, Lorelei was in and out of the PICU every month until her body was just too tired. On July 7, 2021, Lorelei traded her princess tiara and pink super hero cape for angel wings.
WHY APRICITY HOPE PROJECT?
After years as a medical mama, Susan realized that there were so many organizations for the children who were fighting the daily battles – but the support for the caregivers was minimal. As a two-time NICU Mama and a caregiver who spent a lot of time in and out of the PICU with sweet Lorelei… Suz was so blessed to have an incredible village around her. They were dropping off meals, coffee, cozy comforts and even sending her family to the OBX for a few days together. Susan witnessed families around her facing the same struggles, but quickly realized that not everyone had the support she had. In 2020 Susan and a fellow mito mama, Diane, started recording their conversations and connecting with other medical mamas through their podcast, When Autumn Comes. After Lorelei passed in 2021, and Susan’s village was there again, holding her up when she could not even eat – she was yet again in awe of the support from her community. In 2022, after a lot of encouragement from friends and family, Susan created the Apricity Hope Project as a way to share as much love and hope with her medical mom (and dad!) caregiving community.
CONTACT
Follow Suz on social @suzgeoghegan
Or shoot her an email at susan@apricityhope.org
