Help and Hope Happen Here

Oscar Ortiz's son Sebastian was diagnosed with Rhabdomayosarcoma as a sophomore in high school in October of 2015. On today's podcast, you will hear Oscar talk with much emotion and passion about his son, who fought his battle in every way possible before passing away in December of 2016. 
Oscar will talk about the amazing way that Sebastian dealt with his cancer diagnosis with grace and courage, as Sebastian hmself  was the one that told his friends and family that he was not going to survive.
Oscar will also discuss the Toyota Tacoma  that he bought for Sebastian just weeks before his passing, as well as  the Sebastian Strong Foundation that he and his wife Rose started in 2017 to honor the life and memory of their beloved son.

In 2016 shortly before her 7th birthday Ava Girolimetti was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. After a relapse in early January of 2019, she became one of the first patients at Boston Children's Hospital to receive Cart T Cell Therapy. This therapy was thankfully successful and Ava has now been cancer free for 32 months.
Ava's father Marc will talk about Ava's ordeal, and will also talk about Ava's love for the Boston Bruins and the special relationship that developed  with the Bruins organization and especially with Bruins Hall of Famer John Bucyk. 

Gregory Jacobson is now 5 years past his relapse of the Pediatric Cancer Rhabdomayosarcoma, which he was originally diagnosed with as a senior in high school in 2015.  Both Gregory and his mother Susan will talk about what Gregory went through and the great news that he is in the process of completing his Bachelors Degree at Bridgewater State University.  They will also discuss the Bubba Strong Charitable Foundation, which has a mission to help the families of children that have been diagnosed with some form of Pediatric Cancer. 

The Pediatric Brain Cancer Medullomayoblastoma is not the same cancer as the much more common Medulloblastoma. On today's podcast Michael Pruitt will talk about his son Rylan who was diagnosed with this cancer when he was 5 years old in the spring of 2021, and passed away from it at the age of 6, on March 10th of this year. Before Rylan's diagnosis, only 51 cases of this cancer had been diagnosed with only 1 known survivor. 
Michael will also talk about the Rylan Strong Network that he founded, which has a major component of trying to enact legislation that will make certain that insurance companies and the particular hospital that a child is being treated at will pay for treatment, even if an insurance contract has not been signed. 

Olivia Lipnicky passed away from a form of Pediatric Brain Cancer when she was 8 years old in November of 2019. On today's podcast Olivia's mother Emma will talk about what Olivia endured after she was diagnosed in early 2019, and the beautiful young girl that she was throughout her way too short time on earth.
While going through treatment in the summer of 2019, Olivia decided to have a clothing drive that raised $10,000 to help all kids who were suffering from Pediatric Cancer. Her inspiration allowed Emma to continue what Olivia started, as she established the Liv Like a Unicorn Non-Profit. 

Michael Miller and his family are all too familiar with cancer. Michael's daughter Amy was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when she was 15 years old and suffered a stroke and paralysis during her treatment, and an epileptic seizure many years after treatment which caused a head on car crash. Fortunately, Amy is now doing well, is married and giving back to others in this Pediatric Cancer fight.
Michael is now a two time adult cancer survivor and his wife and Amy's mother Barbara defeated Breast Cancer, a diagnosis that she received when she was only 33.
Michael will discuss his family in today's podcast, and will also give an in depth talk on the non-profit Curesearch, which has done important work on speeding up the process of Clinical Trials, and funding researchers who are concentrating on the most difficult forms of Pediatric Cancer.

On today's podcast Jeff Dannick, who is the Executive Director of the Pozez Jewish Community Center and Joellen Broubalow who is the Camp Director for the Horizon Day Camp located in Northern Virginia, will talk about this camp which offers a 6 week summer program of fun and joy for Pediatric Cancer patients and their siblings. 

This camp is under the heading of the Sunrise Association and just completed its first summer. Under the direction of Jeff and Joellen it is well on its way to joining other Horizon Day Camps as being important avenues for many more kids to experience  ways in which they can meet and interact with their peers, develop relationships with them, and most importantly, forget for a time about their individual treatment protocols which they have been dealing with.

Hepatoblastoma is the most common form of Pediatric Liver Cancer. On today's podcast, Dr. Allison O'Neil who is the Director of the Liver Tumor program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Doctor's Pei Wang and Nicole Nunez from Eureka Therapeutics will give expert tutorials from the medical side about this rare form of pediatric cancer. 
From the family side we will hear from Christina and Cody Stiverson and Kathy and Ben Braden who will talk about their respective daughters Adelaide and Avery, who both were diagnosed with this disease. 

On today's podcast Tara Simkins will talk about her son Brennan who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in early 2009. What happened from there turned out to be one of the most memorable stories in Pediatric Cancer as Brennan survived 4 Bone Marrow Transplants in 18 months.   After his first bone marrow transplant Brennan relapsed, and his family was told that they should consider putting Brennan in hospice care as his doctors were not expecting him to survive. Later on in his treatment , his doctors gave him a less than 1 percent chance of survival.

But survive he did.

Brennan is now 21 years old and is a student at the College of Charleston's Reach program in which he has a keen interest in politics. His health is good enough so that he is able to lead a successful and meaningful life as he looks towards a promising future.

On today's podcast Deana Cavan will talk about her beloved son Everett, known as Rett, who passed away on February 22nd 2015 after his Rhabdoid Tumor that was discovered in his liver in October of 2014 had spread to his lungs. Rett's passing came just 5 days before he was to turn 10 months old.

Deana will also discuss her non profit Retts Roost, which she and her husband Jim started just months after Rett passed away. This non-profit features both Bereaved Family Retreats in which EMPATHY is the main focus as well as Survivor Family Retreats in which the main focus is on the word JOYFUL.