Help and Hope Happen Here

Zach Arter had been serving youths in Omaha Nebraska for 15 years in various capacities and then decided to focus on helping Pediatric Cancer patients in August of 2024. That is when he started his HELP 1 PERSON TODAY with this non-profit which tries in a number of ways to help these kids who have to go through difficult treatment during their individual cancer battles.

As Toni and Dylan Franklin were in the playground with their children Noelle and Dylan in the spring of 2024, Noelle asked her dad to look at a bump that had formed on her leg. Withing a week Noelle was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a very difficult Bone Cancer. After being treated at the Pediatric Cancer hospital at Duke University which did not go well, Noelle was transferred to the Pediatric Cancer hospital at the University of North Carolina. Despite the treatment that was more to the benefit to Noelle, she was unable to recover and passed away on May 12th of 2025, almost exactly one year after her original diagnosis. 

After being shuttled back and forth between her home and hospital emergency rooms for months in 2015 because of recurring fevers, Addie Stiverson received the very difficult diagnosis of Hepatoblastoma in the autumn of 2015 while visiting family in Colorado. Although her doctors were optimistic that Addie would recover from this Liver Cancer, her body said otherwise as after a Liver Transplant, Addie's cancer spread to her lungs and then her brain. Addie passed away on December 20th of 2016, having lived for only 3 years and 17 days.

A massive Malignant Rhabdoid Tumor was found on 4 month old Kinley Mercer's left kidney in the summer of 2022 and she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer.  Upon undergoing chemotherapy treatment, Kinley went through scans that showed that her cancer had spread very quickly, so much so that her doctors declared that her cancer was no longer curable. Kinley passed away from this very difficult form of pediatric cancer on November 12th of 2022, only 7 1/2 months after her birth.

Andrea Wilson had two very difficult health crises on her hands, one with her younger daughter Phoenix who was diagnosed with Stage 3 High Risk  Neuroblastoma when she was 3 years old in 2017,  and one with her older daughter Liberty who contracted Septic Pneumonia while Phoenix was in treatment. Phoenix was on the 7th floor of Phoenix Children's Hospital while Liberty was on the 9th floor. Fortunately both girls are surviving and doing well and Andrea and her family are looking onto the possibility of trying to build a Western Style Ranch with horses, so that Pediatric Cancer families can have a place to go to for healing purposes. 

The counties of Knox, Laurel, and Whitley, in Southeastern Kentucky have seen 10 DIPG diagnoses since 2024, an extraordinarily high number of cases in such a condensed area. Shay McAlister is an Independent Journalist who has been investigating this issue and will discuss the problems that are related to this most deadly form of Pediatric Brain Cancer, which normally sees 1 or 2 cases in the entire state each year. Shay has written 2 major articles on this issue and will be continuing her goal to find some answers that are needed as to why this is happening.

After experiencing a number of illness when he was 2 years old going into the spring of 2025, Caitlyn and CJ Jennings thought that their beloved son Brooks was experiencing normal illnesses that many toddlers may experience. Unfortunately that was not the case. Brooks was diagnosed with a Fusion Mesenchymal Tumor that was located in his lung and then spread to his Pelvic Bone. Brooks continued to feel well until August of last year when his health went downhill, leading to his passing on October 25th of 2025.

Shaya Rees Frum was 14 years old when her then 11 year old sister Jessie was diagnosed with DIPG on March 3rd of 2011.  Jessie passed away from this terrible Pediatric Brain Cancer on January 5th of 2012, but not before laying the groundwork for the Jessie Rees Foundation that has been directed by her father Eric for the past 14 years. I spoke with Erik about Jessie and the Foundation back in April. Shaya has taken on a major role in the Foundation, it is her full time job, and hopefully she will be the person to take on its Leadership Role, when Erik and Shaya decide that the time is right .

Maribeth Ditmars has suffered plenty of heartache and loss for the past 25 years, beginning with the diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 1997 and the subsequent passing of her son Christopher at the age of 14 in 2001. This was followed by the passing of her younger son Jarrod when he was 21 years old from an accident on July 4th of 2015, which left him unconscious for the last 4 days of his life. In between those years, Maribeth successfully battled her own demons with her dependence on alcohol, to the point where she has been able to counsel many people who have had similar problems and she is now very involved in helping others. Maribeth has now been sober for 22 years . 

During Alisha Harper's pregnancy, she was told that there was a 60 percent chance that her son would be born with Down Syndrome. That statement turned out to be a correct one as Chase was born in December of 2016 with this illness and by the time Chase was 4 years old, Alisha saw that his Down Syndrome was manageable. One month after feeling as good as possible about how Chase was doing, he developed a body rash which turned out to be a symptom of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Despite having this 1-2 punch thrown at him, Chase is doing well as he is now 9 years old and living his best life possible.