Kelley Bernard was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when she was 14 years old and has now been cancer free for the past 16 years. Because of the treatment that she received from the nurses at Boston Children's Hospital , Kelley decided that she wanted to become a Pediatric Oncology Nurse which became her career path after graduating from St.Anselm's College with a Nursing Degree. Kelley has also participated 3 times in both the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk and the Pan Mass Challenge and is currently training for her upcoming boxing match hosted by the Non-Profit Haymakers For Hope. 

As he was beginning his final year in college and having an excellent season running Cross Country , Justin Spoon developed a strange lump next to his nostril. After a very long and difficult wait for 4 weeks after a biopsy was performed , Justin was diagnosed with Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma in the fall of 2020. Justin not only fought his battle for 2 and half years, he decided to donate his tumor for research which has proven to be of great help in learning more about this form of Pediatric Cancer. Justin passed away from his gallant fight in March of 2023.

Mecklin Ragan is currently a General Surgery Resident in Fairfax , Virginia who hopes to become a Pediatric Oncology surgeon . She was also the older sister by 18 months of her brother James who was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in 2006 at the age of 13. Mecklin tells the story of James who went through a 7 1/2 year protocol which unfortunately ended with his passing from Rice University during his sophomore year. Mecklin is the co-founder of the Triumph Over Kids Cancer Foundation, which is doing a great deal of work to help Pediatric Cancer patients and their families.

Heather Roy's 10 year old daughter had just completed a 10 K road race and was seemingly very healthy in September of 2018 except for a nagging pain in her right side that would not go away. This pain, thought to possibly be appendicitis, turned out to be Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma, which was diagnosed at a much older age than this form of pediatric cancer is normally diagnosed. Evelyn struggled for 18 months with this disease before passing away in February of 2020.

Very often, when a newborn is diagnosed with the genetic condition called Neurofibromatosis which can lead to tumors being formed on nerve endings, these tumors turn out to be benign. Unfortunately , Jessica Messer's son , who was born with this genetic condition had a bulging eye that eventually was diagnosed as Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma. Bennett fought this disease as long as he could before passing away at the tender age of 2 years old in February of 2023.

Jack Gates went to Colorado College where he played Division 1 College Hockey, but he had no real idea early in his college days about where his career path would take him. After going to visit children with pediatric cancer in a hospital setting along with some of his hockey teammates, he decided to start his own non profit called Triumph Together, which makes it possible for these kids and adolescents battling cancer and other serious illnesses to make Memorable Moments, with the help of both collegiate and professional teams and individual athletes. His career choice is now well established, as he is helping and will continue to help so many kids who can use all the happiness that they can get. 

After seeing her then 9 year old son Jaxen hopping on one leg in June of 2023 because he felt pain, Maggie Licea wanted to take Jaxen to his pediatrician who was not available. Instead, Maggie took Jaxen to the nurse practitioner and told her that she suspected that he had cancer. The nurse practitioner disagreed but Maggie's persistence finally prevailed and Jaxen was given the necessary testing that revealed a diagnosis of Osteosarcoma. Jaxen is nearly 14 months past his original diagnosis and unfortunately suffered a relapse from this form of Bone Cancer last week. 

Weston Hermann was first diagnosed with a very rare form of a Glioma type of Pediatric Brain Cancer when he was 7 years old in 2014 and is now going through his 5th battle with this disease within the last 10 years. His father Jared will talk about the amazing fight that Weston has been through and that his resilience has allowed him to still be able to perform as a well known and well regarded 17 year old hockey player , despite playing many games while going through a chemotherapy regiment. 

Christian Englert had to deal with hand tremors for the 1st 15 years of his life which were thought to be genetic, considering that his sister and father both had similar tremors. However, Christian's tremors got worse in 2015 and the 15 year old finally went to a neurologist and not long after that, he was diagnosed with the more than rare Brain Cancer known as Pineal Parenchymal Tumor With Intermediate Differentation. This form of cancer was only diagnosed 5 other times in the years between 2000 and 2015 with all of those coming in people who were at least middle age. Miraculously according to his doctors , Christian is now 8 1/2 years past his diagnosis and is a considered to be a cancer survivor. Christian has graduated college, received his Masters degree, is very much an advocate for the Make A Wish Foundation, and is living as good of a life as possible.

Len Forkas's son Matt was diagnosed with Leukemia while in 3rd grade. Matt became depressed that he was not able to go to school and communicate with his classmates and friends, so Len created a Video Conferencing System which allows these patients to be in touch virtually with their peers on a daily basis . This non profit is called HOPE CAM and 4500 children and adolescents have been able to use this system, which greatly helps minimize the problem of social isolation.