Dr. Hawkins prescribes joy to more than 300 patients

Dr. Doug Hawkins is one of the top pediatric hematology oncology physicians in the nation, if not the world. 

He is Associate Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Associate Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research at Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH). He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School. And, he wears ties with miniature, multi-colored alligators on them. 

At six feet two inches tall, you can imagine how he must look to his tiny patients. From their perspective, he’s a gentle giant there to help them slay the evil villain attacking their bodies: cancer. His voice is soft. His laughter is warm. And his demeanor is so down-to-earth and friendly that you feel like you have known him for a lifetime, even if you only met him moments ago. 

Like any professional, he’s learned how to play up his natural strengths to aid him in building a successful career that spans multiple decades, but he also has a secret weapon.  Something that allows him to do his job that much better: Make-A-Wish. 

“We have so much we can do medically to take care of medical problems, to treat the side effects. But we don’t really have a treatment for the toxicity of the soul, the things that happen that make people so discouraged or fatigued or run down. And that’s what Make-A-Wish can do,” he said. 

Dr. Hawkins has signed off on the paperwork for more than 300 children, allowing them to realize their dreams. He’s seen the transformation that a wish provides to ill children and he is a firm believer in the important role that wishes play during treatment. 

“Wishes have a central role in patient care. A wish is something that transcends a medical illness and allows people to plan for something well outside of the walls of the hospital or the next clinic visit. It’s a way to treat something that we can’t treat with medicine, and that’s what makes it so important,” he said. “I think it allows people to get past some of the acute side effects, the feelings they have that go along with their medical illness and be a kid. Not be limited by their illness.”