Hopefully for the 1ST and LAST time, I spoke with a mom and dad who had what I am calling a misfortune on Steroids when Tanya and Luke Palmowski's son Tyler was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma when he was 8 years old in 2015, was able to ring the bell at Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, Albert 1 year later in 2016, and then just as Covid was hitting in March of 2020 was diagnosed with DIPG. Tyler passed away on November 24th of 2020 .

Beginning on February 10th and proceeding into February 13th, Texas Children's Hospital will be hosting the 2nd Childhood Cancer Prevention Symposium. Many critical topics in the Childhood Cancer Community will be discussed during this symposium beginning with the Keynote Speaker address from Dan Fagin, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the book Tom's River,  a Story of Science and Salvation. His book discusses one of the biggest environmental  disasters in history on the coast of New Jersey.  This disaster caused many children to develop different forms of cancer. His address will begin the Symposium and the word PREVENTION will play a major role and theme in the 2 1/2 day conference. 

Just 2 weeks after she was born in July of 2023, Carol Sagnay's daughter Noa was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, as she was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, which was diagnosed after she was born with birthmarks all over her body. Carol will talk about the difficulties that Noa has gone through for the past 17 months, including being 5 minutes from passing away according to a nurse. Fortunately Carol herself picked out a drug which was given to Noa beginning in February of this year, that has helped Noa regain much of her health up to this point. 

Trista Temimi's daughter Valeria was born on September 11th of 2023 and immediately began having health issues. It took until January of 2024 to finally receive her diagnosis of Neuroblastoma. Since that time, Valeria has been battling this pediatric cancer and today, December 16th, she is undergoing scans to see how she is doing, with the hope being that she is at least stable and hopefully the news will be even better than that for this 15 month old little girl. 

Camp Rainbow Gold was started back in the 1980's, with the goal to welcome a small amount of Pediatric Cancer patients for a week of fun and being away from their cancer issues for a short time. Now, some 40 years later, this camp has grown substantially to over 400 attendees which include not only pediatric cancer patients , but their parents, siblings, and survivors to enjoy many activities during the late spring, summer, and fall months. Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Lizberg discusses this camp, which in reality is a 365 day a year concern for Elizabeth and her staff. 

Tommy Stackhouse was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia just two weeks before his 16th birthday in May of 2019. Tommy graduated from High School and during his senior year he was voted Homecoming King. After two Stem Cell Transplants and while Tommy was studying at a Community College, Tommy's health became a serious problem and he passed away from this most difficult form of Blood Cancer on May 26th of 2022. 

Brandon and Amanda Huffman's daughter Avery complained of double vision and then her right eye became introverted in June of 2015, and after 2 visits to a Pediatric Opthamologist, she was diagnosed with DIPG. Avery's battle with this form of Pediatric Brain Cancer lasted only 7 1/2 months before her passing on February 16th of 2016, and she was even denied the Honeymoon period that many DIPG sufferers get to experience. 

11 year old Noah Klein began having trouble with his motor skills as well as fatigue in January of 2022 and quickly was diagnosed with DIPG. Noah was able to feel well enough by May of that year to attend a Miami Heat playoff game and to meet Jimmy Butler who was their star player. His mom Elan talks about what Noah went through which included a honeymoon period that summer where Noah was able to travel with his family and was feeling good until the fall season when his condition began to deteriorate, and led to his passing on February 17th of 2023 when he was 12 1/2 years old. 

Sil Lutkiwitte is the Chief Executive Officer and Randy Schrecengost is the Chief Scientific Officer for Targepeutics, and their company has created a protein known as GB-13 which is targeted to help in the fight against DIPG and DMG. This protein is designed to kill off bad brain cells while completely avoiding good brain cells and they are hoping to get the necessary financing to be able to bring this protein to Clinical Trial in the near future. 

Hollis Belger was told by her mom Allison when she was only 9 years old about the importance of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and what its Mission was in fighting pediatric cancer. To say that Hollis took her mom's message literally is the understatement of the year. Almost immediately Hollis started fundraising for St. Jude by using her incredible ability to juggle a soccer ball and now at, 20, she has raised $795,000 for St. Judes and has accomplished many other great things in trying to encourage young people to get involved in causes that empower themselves and empower others to give back to those that need it in many ways, including philanthropy. Hollis is truly one of a kind.