Help and Hope Happen Here

During a 3 week period in 1997 Stephanie Peters experienced nausea, dizziness, and finally neck pain before her Pediatric Brian Cancer diagnosis of Ependymoma. Stephanie will talk about that very difficult period in her life which fortunately ended with her final diagnosis in 2002. Over the last 20 years , Stephanie has managed to lead as good a life as possible, although of course she has had to deal with a number of physical side effects, as well as some psychosocial side effects as well.  Looking at Stephanie, you would never know that she has had any illness, never mind being a 4 time survivor of this disease. 

Rosaria Kozar will talk about her son Brody who she lost to Rhabdomayosarcoma in 2015. For several years after Brody's passing, Rosaria struggled to figure out what she wanted to do with her life and decided that her best path forward would be to get involved as an activist and advocate in the fight against Pediatric Cancer.

Rosaria now hosts the excellent Pediatric Cancer Podcast Living With Scanxiety which is a subject of great importance to the Pediatric Cancer community. Rosaria is also involved in many other aspects of Pediatric Cancer as she helps others try and deal with what she and her husband had to witness as they lost their beloved son. 

The Art In Giving is a non profit started by Eliane and Gary Markoff, after their daughter Rachel Molly passed away from a form of Pediatric Brain Cancer in 1992.  Since that time, they have raised over 2 million dollars for research to try and help patients and their families conquer this terrible disease. 
The Markoff's recently awarded a $250,000 grant to Dr. Mariella Filbin at Dana Farber who is combining with Dr. Suzanne Baker from St. Jude's to tear apart donated tumor tissues and individually sequence them, which they hope will lead to allowing the immune system to break down bad cells which are involved in the Pediatric Brain Cancer DIPG. 

Jeri Wilson has been the Executive Director of the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation for 10 years. Under the umbrella of this foundation is Dribble For A Cure, a fundraiser that takes place at St. John's University and UCLA. Since 2008, this event has raised nearly 2 million dollars for Pediatric Cancer Research.  Members of both schools basketball teams, its coaches, alumni, and students get together to support this event, which truly is just getting started.

This fundraiser recently partnered with the V Foundation,  and expansion in the number of schools that participate in this event is on the way.  Along with this change, the event has now changed its name to Dribble For Victory Over Cancer and you can just type in that name to learn more about this fundraiser. 

Sarah Bartosz recently became the Executive Director at Beat Childhood Cancer and has certainly navigated a more than difficult path to get there. Sarah and her husband John lost their son Jack to Neuroblastoma after he fought nearly 7 years with this Pediatric Cancer in 2012. Then just 4 years later, John passed away from the late after affects of a Young Adult Cancer that he had battled with while he was in his 20's. 
We know that things come in threes and although she is doing well health wise, Sarah was diagnosed with Breast Cancer just a few years ago.
Sarah's journey has been a very inspiring one as you will find out on today's podcast. 

Theresa Beech's son Daniel was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma when he was 11 years old and passed away from this bone cancer in 2016 when he was 13 . Theresa, a Space Engineer at NASA was able to use her expertise in collecting and analyzing data, to identify a drug which allowed Daniel to live 4 months longer when the thought was that he had only 2 weeks to live.
Before he passed away, Daniel asked his mother to continue to try and help other Osteosarcoma patients, and Theresa has come up with a number of initiatives and solutions which are making the future of Osteosarcoma patients, especially patients that have relapsed, look brighter then one that they currently have. 

After a 15 month battle with Medulloblastoma which began in July of 2006 and sadly ended in October of 2007, 5 year old Mason Leach lived a very short and very meaningful life. Mason's mother Danielle will detail Mason's battle and will talk about what she has done since that time to fight for all of these kids who have suffered from both Pediatric Brain Cancer and other cancers that kids have unfortunately been diagnosed with.

Danielle will talk about her current position as the Director of Advocacy and Government Relations at the National Brain Tumor Society, and will discuss many of the advancements in the Pediatric Cancer fight that she has been involved with. 

While a 20 year old student at the University of Kansas in 2019 Jace Ward was diagnosed with DIPG, a Pediatric Brain Cancer that normally strikes kids who are much younger than Jace was. On today's podcast his mother Lisa will detail his life, in which Jace spent the close to 26 months after his diagnosis advocating with the clearest and strongest voice possible, that the kids who were to come after him and suffered a similar fate needed to be given the hope that there would be a better outcome than the one that he and too many other DIPG patients have paid the ultimate price for.

With everything that Jace accomplished during his more than 2 year battle, he leaves a lasting legacy and is one of the Iconic Warriors in this Pediatric Brain Cancer fight. 

Adriana Lewin's soon to be 4 year old son was diagnosed with Rhabdomayosarcoma  in November of 2019. A licensed Therapist, Adriana started the Family Chemotherapy podcast and discusses the many issues that parents go through after their child is diagnosed with any form of Pediatric Cancer. Some of the topics that Adriana discusses in today's podcast include coping with the diagnosis, toxic positivity, being ghosted, and isolation, which can happen to anyone trying to deal with what is happening with their child.  Thankfully, Adriana's son is doing well today. 

Sydney Sherwood's younger brother Billy was diagnosed with Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma when he was 13 months old in 2008. Sydney is 5 1/2  years older than Billy and she will talk about his Pediatric Cancer battle, in which she there every step of the way during his fight and recovery. Sydney considers Billy to be her best friend.

During this period, Sydney became a very talented Singer and Songwriter and in 2019 she published an Extended Play entitled Beauty From Ashes and followed that up during the Pandemic by producing her first album called Headspace.

Sydney also received a golden ticket to go to Hollywood from judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Ritchie after trying out for American Idol.

Sydney's goal with her music is to inspire others and she will always be involved in the cause of Pediatric Cancer, mostly through her work in the Arms Wide Open Foundation, which was started by her  well known and well accomplished Pediatric Cancer Advocate mom Dena and her father Billy.