Brothers Robbie and Gabriel Alatrash sought to provide service to cancer patients beyond monetary donations, so they created and now run the Tandem Initiative, fostering projects like Comfort Through Chemo that supply cancer patients with pastimes.
The goal of the initiative was to not only offer support, but to build community and then to be in that community with them. It is that “togetherness aspect,” Robbie said, that inspired the name of the initiative.
“We are along for the ride with these patients,” Gabriel said, “We’re actually bouncing around ideas, and eventually, we settled on tandem initiative, because it’s kind of like, we are working in tandem with these patients, right?”
In establishing the Tandem Initiative, the brothers said they wanted to fulfill needs that are not typically met.
A group of students decorates care packages for Comfort Through Chemo (Photo courtesy of Robbie Alatrash).
“What we kind of wanted to focus on was more of those emotional needs as personal needs,” Gabriel said, “because I don’t think that there are a lot of organizations out there doing that.”
Robbie, senior biochemistry major, and his younger brother Gabriel, sophomore mechanical engineering major, are from Pearland. The two started the initiative in 2024, knowing they wanted to provide support to cancer patients – but they were not quite sure how.
“The idea was to support cancer patients in some capacity,” Robbie said, “We didn’t really define that at the time that we started the initiative.”
After some brainstorming and fundraising, they were able to create and deliver care packages with snacks and pastimes to patients at Henrick Medical Center undergoing chemo infusions.
Robbie is a volunteer at Hendrick in the chemo infusion clinic. Throughout the process, he said he has been able to touch base with patients, taking advice about what worked and was favored in the care packages.
“The decision to pivot towards art was, in large part, because our patient feedback was very, very much in strong favor of the nonfood items that we provided,” Robbie said.
Students color paper bags to decorate care packages for Comfort Through Chemo (Photo courtesy of Robbie Alatrash).
Although this is the first time Robbie and Gabriel have built their own organization, Gabriel had some experience. Frequently visiting the campus activities board, Gabriel found himself involved in organizations like the Honors Council.
“I was just signing up for all these organizations, and I think that was foundational,” Gabriel said, “because it kind of gave me experience in how to operate on campus.”
After figuring out the nuts and bolts of positions and paperwork, Gabriel said the process has been organic as they have been able to receive face-to-face feedback to understand and adapt to community needs.
Alongside care packages with art supplies, puzzles and word searches, Robbie and Gabriel established an online community, allowing patients to share their artwork by posting on Instagram.
Looking ahead, the Tandem Initiative aims to expand into pediatrics. For anyone interested in supporting or following the Tandem Initiative in their journey, the Instagram can be found here, and Comfort Through Chemo fundraising can be accessed here.
