Help and Hope Happen Here

Max Pound was an outstanding young athlete and full of life until 2020 when  his mother Carol, who in her professional life was involved with early oncology drug development, noticed some concerning health signs and took Max to get them checked out. 
Shortly after that Max was diagnosed with Diffuse Hemispheric Glioma, a very rare form of Pediatric Brain Cancer at the age of 10. Through much of 2021 Max was feeling well enough to return to his athletic endeavors and to school when possible, but at the end of 2021 Max had a relapse, struggled through 2022 , and passed away on January 11th of 2023.
Carol will talk about her beloved son and the Max Pound Foundation which her family started to honor Max's memory in 2023. 

After returning from a trip to the Zoo in 2019 with her then 5 year old son Sawyer and her 2 1/2 year old daughter Isla , Autumn Gentry noticed a number of freckles on Isla's body. After being reassured by Isla's Pediatrician that she was a "healthy child", her doctor ordered blood tests just to be sure that everything was okay, which it was not. Isla was quickly diagnosed with the Pediatric Blood Cancer Acute Myeloid Leukemia. After a relapse 5 month's after her diagnosis, Isla was preparing for a Bone Marrow Transplant which never happened and then a clinical trial which did not work. Almost nothing went right for Isla during her treatment and she passed away in August of 2020.

High School senior Dustin Liang was diagnosed with T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on June 4th of this year and in response to that his friend Amine Bentahar, a sophomore at his high school, started the Dustin Strong organization in honor of Dustin's Pediatric Cancer battle.  Dustin will talk about his treatment and how he is doing and Amine will discuss what has already happened with the organization and the plans that he has for it going forward.

Grainne Owen and her husband Clay started their Curing Kids Cancer Non-Profit after their son Killian passed away from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2003. Grainne will talk about her beloved son and his fight against this most common form of Pediatric Cancer, and her Non-Profit which has raised $27 million dollars to help these kids and their families, with many more dollars to be raised in the coming years.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has been the largest Non-Profit fundraiser of Blood Cancer research for nearly 75 years. On today's podcast I will speak with Stacy Kreizman who is the Senior Manager of Patient and Community Outreach for this Non-Profit in New Jersey and Northeastern Pennsylvania. Stacy will talk about her role in this non profit in which she truly is a Jack Of All Trades, and will also discuss the $175 million dollar new initiative that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is unfolding to help in the cause of Pediatric Blood Cancer. 

When Colleen Tanaka's then 8 year old son Tenzin was not feeling well and had been showing troubling symptoms in the spring of 2022, Colleen took him to his Pediatrician , an Ear Nose and Throat Specialist, an Allergist , and to an Emergency room Doctor with no blood work being taken. Finally, Tenzin went to Stony Brook Hospital in New York, blood work was taken, and he was diagnosed with T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in June of 2022.  Colleen will talk about Tenzin's 17 month treatment which has shown that he is now cancer free, and will talk about her advocacy work that began at a School Board meeting in February of 2023, and has now expanded to  the point that Collen has her own blog and support group which goes under the heading of leukemiamom.com.

Becoming a Nurse and caring for Pediatric Cancer patients is a very difficult job in itself and becoming a nurse and working with DIPG patients and their families makes their jobs only more difficult. On today's podcast Nurse Navigators Leslie Jared and Lauren Kirages will talk about their experiences working with these kids who have been diagnosed with this type of Brain Cancer which, as we know, still does not have any survivors after a certain time period. Leslie and Lauren will  speak very passionately about the love that they have for the kids and families that they work with, and the passion that they have for their roles in this DIPG fight.

After being diagnosed with Medulloblastoma in March of 2021, Breanna and Matt Meo's 8 year old son Landon was admitted to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to begin a clinical trial which was working well until Landon relapsed in March of 2022. Breanna and Matt will talk about the difficult treatment that Landon went through as well as some good times, especially in the first few months of 2022 when he was able to attend 3 Sacramento Kings basketball games, meet the players from that team, and meet Lebron James on April 7th, 8 months before his December 17th 2022 passing. 

Grace Wethor began her life as a self described "Super Active Child" as she was a Dancer, a member of a World Championship Synchronized Figure Skating Team at the age of 9, then joining the Circus when she was 11, hanging by her toes 30 feet in the air on a trapeze.  When she was 13 years old, Grace was diagnosed with a Brain Stem Glioma which is a form of Pediatric Brain Cancer which looks a great deal like DIPG but has never been diagnosed as such.  Grace was diagnosed on January 9th of 2015 and now nearly 9 years later has been going strong professionally as she is an Award Winning Film Director, and Actress, a best Selling Author, and the CEO of her own company known as GRAE Entertainment. Grace is also a very public advocate for the cause of Pediatric Brain Cancer as she has made it a mission to help as many of her peers with different forms of Brain Cancer as she can.

For the past 22 years Sandy Hecker has been working with the Food and Drug Administration to help in the fight against both Adult and Pediatric Cancer. Sandy will talk about her positive thoughts involving this large organization and that they are committed to helping in every way possible to helping these families deal with such a difficult problem. Sandy will talk about what this organization faces as far as obstacles are concerned,  their involvement in clinical trials, and their work in approving research which hopefully leads to productive new medicines in this fight. Sandy will also discuss her trip to Curefest back in September and the eye opening experience that it was for her.