For Hailey Fondeur, prom starts with a chair in a makeshift salon inside Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Einstein.

It's exactly where most teenagers get ready for prom, but not every teenager has the same journey.

“My child life specialist Katie sent me a message saying, ‘Hey, there’s a prom going on in a few months, do you want to go?’ And I texted her back, ‘Of course I want to go,’” Fondeur said.

For the 10th year, the hospital has transformed part of its campus into a prom for patients living with chronic illnesses.

“Without this experience, some of our patients unfortunately wouldn’t have the chance to attend a prom,” Hilary Woodward, the director of Patient and Family Programs, said.

Fondeur understands that better than most.

“It was a really difficult time because when you’re a teenager you’re starting to go through changes and then getting this diagnosis, it kind of stops that,” she said.

Fondeur was diagnosed with leukemia in December 2022. This night, she’s able to focus on something else: a dress, a date and the future she once wasn’t sure she’d have.

“Ever since I rang the bell, I graduated high school, I turned 18,” she said.

Now cancer-free, Fondeur is studying at Lehman College — inspired by the child life specialist who helped her through treatment.

“I know how these kids feel, and I know that they need some support, and I want to be that support for them,” she said.

A few years ago, people were helping Fondeur through cancer. Soon, she hopes to do the same for someone else.

But before that future begins, there’s prom.

“She came to me and said, ‘Hey, I got invited and I want you to come.’ and I said, ‘Absolutely,’” Fondeur’s date Sebastian Ramirez said.

One more milestone, one more memory and one more reminder of how far she’s come.

“It makes me feel like, ‘Hey, there is something good at the end of the tunnel,’” Fondeur said.

The prom is funded through community donations, helping make the event free for patients and their families.