Easter 2018

The screensaver photo on my phone is from last Easter.  I remember that Brent had blessedly begun regenerating skin after a horrific case of GVHD.  He was weaning aggressively from his narcotics.  We were filled with so much hope.  Alex was home from Ann Arbor and we were all together after a long and stressful couple of months in hospital, most of it spent in the PICU.  Lauren was healthy. Life was good.

This year is quieter.  Brent is not here with us.  Alex is in Australia.  We finally found a moment of grace after the escalating cancer concerns of the past month.  Doctors have determined that Lauren has shockingly relapsed with osteosarcoma, but at least she had some reassuring staging last week.  While we have much work in front of us, sorting out a plan and likely returning to Houston for help with these uncharted waters, we are blessedly starting from a good position.  There is no evidence of disease in Lauren's body at the moment.  God willing, it will remain this way. 



Lauren and I have been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack over the past couple of weeks. I think of Brent when we listen, because he and I had always hoped to see this show together, long before it was a smash hit.  We schemed several times to attend with my dear friend Gabby, when Brent had appointments in NYC at Sloan Kettering. A mutant's calendar is hugely unpredictable, and this uncertainty is only compounded by trying to make social plans with another mutant. The planets never quite aligned. Gabby died last summer of metastatic breast cancer just as Brent relapsed with AML and Lauren was diagnosed with osteo.  I miss her tremendously.
 

Hamilton is tenacious, hardworking, outspoken and ambitious.  He yearns for glory in the revolution, even at the risk of martyrdom. There is a line in the musical where Washington sagely warns him, "Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder."  The truth of this statement echoes and reverberates.

Brent and Gabby are both gone now, remarkable individuals who worked incredibly hard to remain among the living, to share their laughter and love.  Living may have been harder for them, but I do know that it was worth it, for both.

Brent's living days were filled with so much activity-doctoring wounds, counting up nutrition, dosing medications and problem solving, day in and day out.  But there was laughter, and there was so much love. It was hard work, his living, but it was hopeful.  It was always worth it.

As helpless we were in witnessing Brent's death and as difficult as it was to plan his funeral with Dan, living these more recent and somewhat emptier days has been much harder in many ways. We trudge through, always trying to honor Brent's struggle and bring about positive change for others.  It is something that we can do.

I attended a living "Stations of the Cross" service on Good Friday with Lauren, the first time that I have been to St Basil's since Brent's funeral. While we are not Catholic, I very much wanted to go to an Easter service there.  I was impressed by how these teenagers, classmates of Lauren and Brent, selected popular secular music to reflect the various challenges that Christ faced on his last day. Lauren was touched by how her peers related the stations of the cross to everyday life, using their own experience and explaining it in their own words.

I wept, each time that Jesus fell.  Lauren quietly passed me tissues, God bless her kind soul. The public display of Christ's struggle, his repeated failures, as well as the kindness and compassion offered by Simon and Veronica really spoke to me. The youth portrayed a very human struggle, and one that I could relate to, drawing any number of analogies. 

Lauren drove us home afterward and I gazed at an enormous full moon out the window, thinking of Brent.  This was the second blue moon of the year.

We decorated eggs when we returned home, a typical RamerNation creative endeavor.  We made some eggs for Alex and Brent, which helped to heal my heart some.

Our family celebrated Easter yesterday, a time of rebirth and renewal. We rejoiced in our moments of beauty. Olivia shared Wordsworth's poem about daffodils.  Lauren sang some songs and played her Uke. The world continued to turn, with Alex having adventures on the other side of it.  Brent, even farther away, will remain with me for all of my days.

A world changed

There are thresholds through which you pass in life, events that dominate the landscape enough to define the era.  "When I was in college...."  or  "Before we had children..."  For us, there was a pivotal swing in August of 2011 when Dan and I landed in Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, and began to actively fight cancer with our children.  Our lives since then have been a constant battle- sometimes more strategic in nature, sometimes completely brutal.  The scenery would shift, from hospital to hospital. The personnel would change, depending upon the flavor of cancer that we were dealing with.  But we have lived solidly under the umbrella of "after cancer" for six and a half years.

We have devastatingly crossed another threshold, one that will define the remainder of our lives. Brent, who worked incredibly hard and always managed to find his way out of tight spots, succumbed to infection on December 30th in Houston.  He was surrounded by those that he loved. We all returned to Ohio heartbroken, but determined to honor his life, and our love for him. 

So, we begin to mend our hearts, and bind up the empty places in our family. I take on a new identity, one so unnatural and unspeakable, that our language fails to name it.  'Orphan' and 'widow' articulate the loss of parents and spouse. But there is no word to identify a parent who loses a child.  I am a bit lost, literally without words.

For the RamerNation, as in all things, life is complicated by having two children with cancer.  We must continue our efforts with Lauren, who is in active treatment for osteosarcoma.  We cannot simply be still, cocooning ourselves in front of the fire while the snow falls, much as we might want to or as much as our souls might yearn for this. Tomorrow, we return to the hospital, pick up the tools at our disposal, and do our very best for our daughter.  

Brent, along with many others, was hoping for a different outcome. However, because of Brent, and many others, doctors and scientists are discovering better ways of dealing with cancer.  My sincere hope is that the tools become more strategic and less brutal.  But, ever practical, we pick up and use whatever we have around us.  For Lauren, what we have available is some punishing chemo, which carried devastating side effects for Brent. 

I try to remind myself that everyone has their own story.  Lauren is very different from her brother, and perhaps leukemia will not develop in her. Like all parents, we are trying to write our very best story with Lauren, as we did with Brent.  While Brent will not be active in our family for this next part, his experience taught us so much. His example of quiet strength and determination is our standard. His love flows through us all, and spills into everything that we do.

We have set up a page to honor Brent and support research.  You may use the following link to view:

Forever RamerNation

It is Christmas. We are looking for Miracles.

December is a month filled with preparations and anticipation for everyone.  There are cookie exchanges, packages, cards, holiday parties and every manner of excitement for the end of the year celebration, however you happen to name it.  The Ramers celebrate Christmas, but this year our preparations have been for a very different sort of event.

We have been waiting with diminishing patience and increasing anxiety to learn if the T cells that researchers at MD Anderson collected last month had sufficiently grown.  The call came a little over a week ago, that they were successful.  Chemo would begin on Christmas Eve and the genetically engineered T cells would be administered five days later.

Our preparations and travel arrangements were hastily made, and filled with gratitude because Brent now has circulating blasts.  It becomes a race in AML, to not have a catastrophic event as the disease overtakes the marrow, because it reduces the power of the immune system.  Infection becomes increasingly dangerous. Infection is the catastrophic event we most fear.

The day before we were to fly to Houston, Brent developed a cough.  I held my breath.

Overnight, only hours from our departure, he required more oxygen.  I wanted some for myself.

As the medical transport team arrived before dawn, Brent went into respiratory distress.  Heartbroken and despairing,  I asked that we fly anyway,  knowing that the only way that Brent might live, is if he could get to these cells.  I write this from an ICU in Houston, where Brent battles both leukemia and septic pneumonia. They have sedated and intubated him, giving his body time to fight the infection with the help of strong medicines.

While I knew that we would spend our holiday in the hospital, I did not anticipate that it would look this this.

We are so grateful for our new team of physicians and nurses at MD Anderson who are working hard to help Brent manage his dueling sharks. While still very ill, this is clearly where he needs to be.  Our whole family is now here. He is surrounded by love.

While the path ahead is filled with uncertainty,  I remain ever hopeful.  Perhaps with good reason:

We learned on this day in 2011, that Lauren had a sizable asymptomatic brain tumor. This was devastating news for Dan and me, but 9-year-old Lauren called finding it a 'Christmas Miracle.'  Two years ago, we managed to get Brent home for Christmas, nearly in remission, contrary to every medical expectation.  Last December, we had evidence of a successful skin graft between Alex and Brent, something that has never been accomplished before. This Christmas, we are hoping for another fantastic and improbable gift, better than anything available from Amazon.

I am grateful to be here, listening to the whoosh of the ventilator, waiting for the slow healing.  I have faith that it will come.

The Ramers welcome your prayers and send you our love this Christmas.

Unexpected and unlikely

I have been thinking a lot about cells.  Particular cells.  Special cells that, not unlike the RamerNation, have taken an exceptionally unusual journey.

The DNA for the cells were created over 20 years ago.  The ancestor cells grew in my son Alex, dividing and carrying on in the most normal of ways. There was no suggestion, for well over a decade, that they would do anything special.  It was assumed that they would live out their time quietly in the suburbs.

Two and a half years ago, some of Alex's cells were scooped up and abruptly transplanted into a foreign war zone, where they tried to establish a new life.  In Brent's body, these cells struggled and fought with the hostile natives, but they quickly became overwhelmed. 

By Thanksgiving of 2015, they were on the verge of capitulation, when another wave of refugee cells arrived from Alex, this time with a great number of mercenary T cells. This influx of special help turned the tide in a remarkable way, beating down the leukemia to undetectable levels.

The conflict continued over then next 18 months, but open hostility was downregulated--perhaps to something more along the lines of aggressive political maneuverings. We watched from afar, really hoping that leukemia was finally behind us.  However, over the past summer, going to clinic with Brent was like reading the international section of the newspaper. As lab reports trickled in, I worried that all was not well in this historically troubled part of the world.

By July, it was clear that violence had broken out again in Brent's body. Leukemia had survived and had gained a foothold.

Brent has seen horrific weaponry most of which kills indiscriminately, the equivalent of using mustard gas (Methotrexate is actually derived from mustard gas-fun fact).  He has undergone surgical sacrifice of large tracts of land and endured a nuclear holocaust (hello, radiation!) We have cut, poisoned and burned Brent in excess, in our efforts to eliminate the bad cells.  Scientists have been focused on problematic cancer cells for so long, always searching for vulnerabilities so that we can better kill cancer with new medicines.

I have been grateful for these efforts, and for this line of research.  The development of these brutal weapons is, in part, how Brent managed to beat osteosarcoma and metastatic melanoma. I often say that it has been an absolute privilege to develop treatment induced AML.  There is no snark found in that statement.

With immunotherapy, however, the focus is actually on these other cells, the good that exists in Brent's body.  Scientists are now studying ways to make what is working--cancer surveillance by the immune system--stronger and better. The traditional approach to cancer has been laser focused on the enemy, in a horrible war of attrition- (kill the cancer faster than you kill the patient). We are only on the cusp of this paradigm change, but it is very exciting and hopeful.

Last month at MD Anderson, we extracted some of those mercenary T cells of Alex's, which have been residing in Brent's body for a while.  We shipped them off to a lab in New Jersey where they will go through special ops training so that they can better identify and eliminate leukemia cells. They will be genetically modified to be focused on CD33, targeting a protein found on the surface of Brent's leukemia.

We are still waiting to hear if the cells have grown, and passed their training program.  They may hail from Alex's body, but they will fight passionately for Brent, their new homeland. We hope to infuse them back into Brent, in Houston, before Christmas.

Waiting for news of the cells is exceptionally difficult.  While many people hate a war analogy for cancer, I feel like a viewing of Dunkirk might be an encouragement to me about now.  I have often found inspiration in how Britain as a nation, survived such uncertainty and peril.  They were tenacious, and at times unconventional. 



Like Alex's cells, we began our family without fanfare, never suspecting that we would do anything unusual. I thought I would be quietly gardening in the suburbs, raising my children in the most ordinary way. I was not remotely ambitious, but always thought that my contribution to the world would be to raise extraordinary children with Dan.

I never imagined this, when I hoped that they would be extraordinary. But I rather think that they are.


We welcome your prayers for our family.

A less traveled road

I spent most of September and a warm October in the hospital with Lauren and Brent.  I would see large families visiting Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital on the weekends, sometimes providing improbable visuals: Amish men with their wide brimmed hats and distinctive beards walking behind a group of Muslim girls in full black burka. Witnessing these unlikely neighbors reminded me that pediatric cancer recognizes no boundaries.

While there is great focus on disparity, discord and discrimination between cultures, cancer is the great unifier.  We parents, regardless of any other differences, desperately want the same thing for our children.  Within the cocooned isolation of the oncology unit, we hold on to each other and to hope. We may pray in varied ways, but each of us utters the identical prayer.  Please bring health to my child.

The world, as presented in the media is a clanging ugly noise, something that is piped in via the television found in the nutrition room.  I generally turn it off, preferring the quieter expressions of love and kindness that we experience every single day.

While writing this, lyrics from some other lifetime, were called to my mind.

We share the same biology 

Regardless of ideology 

Believe me when I say to you, 

I hope the Russians love their children too
-Sting

I enjoyed my occasional days at home when I could to get Olivia on the bus. Upon waking, Olivia would always roll over to sleepily greet the sunrise, declaring its beauty and promise.  This morning when I woke her for school, it was dark outside, and cold.  Her cheer and enthusiasm are blessedly unwavering.

We return to warmer climate next week. Brent will formally enter a clinical trial at MD Anderson in Houston for his relapsed AML, a research study that just began recruiting in mid August, only a month before we sought options there.

I picked Lauren up after a rare day without chemo, one that permitted her to attend class.  We chatted over lunch about our family and the notion that "to whom much is given, much is expected."  The Ramers have been given so much. While we have been given far too much cancer in my opinion, we are also loved and supported in ways I never could have imagined. Lauren and I agreed that we each have a talent, and we should use it in service to others.

My daughter is comfortable speaking publicly and uses her voice to help the adolescent cancer community. Brent, she pointed out, has knack for getting out of incredibly tight spots. His talent seems to be providing Proof of Concept to enterprising folks in medicine, like the surgeon who successfully grafted skin from Alex onto Brent last November.

While I cannot deny the truth in this, I would much prefer that he take up juggling.

I reminded Lauren that I have been following developments in immunotherapy for years.  Emily Whitehead was a name I knew long before Brent had leukemia.  Her success with Car-T had dramatically changed the treatment options in ALL.  Reading about her and the brilliant researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia brought me hope. I thought that using the immune system could transform all of cancer treatments, particularly for folks with LFS because it does not rely on our defective P53 function, as chemotherapy and radiation do.  I even said back in 2015 when Brent first developed leukemia, knowing that Car-T was still limited to CD19 /ALL, that I would gladly stand in line if a CAR-T trial for AML were available.

We now find ourselves next in that line for an early phase I trial for CD-33 Car-T to treat his relapsed AML.

I wonder sometimes if I unknowingly made a bargain with God. I alternate in my responses.  Should I be grateful about this, terrified, or completely pissed off?  I always lean toward gratitude, but in the interest of honesty, have to reveal my conflicting emotions. Faith, I have always said, is hard.

Our home smells of wood smoke and spiced cider when we return. At Thanksgiving, for three consecutive years now, Brent will attempt something unproven.  His daring is fueled by a mix of desperation and courage. As his mother, I choose to focus on his courage and his grace.

I wish we were simply taking a less traveled road, but Brent consistently steps into the wilderness with a medical machete, cutting a path for others to follow.

We welcome your prayers, however you form them.


   

The month of September

It is September, the month where we "Go for Gold" in honor of pediatric cancer.  I write this from my daughter's hospital room as methotrexate drips in the darkness, the same yellow poison that we pumped into my son Brent nearly six years ago.  We are giving Lauren the identical chemotherapy regimen that caused Brent's leukemia. 

It sounds like madness, but we have no other option.

It is September, and my brave, bald daughter sleeps fitfully, frequently waking to ask for a basin, or medicines to help with the nausea.  I am not sleeping, partially because of these requests, but mostly because I know that I should be writing something.  It is September, after all.

I am not sure how to describe how we manage as a family, having two children with active cancer. Lauren is being treated for high grade osteosarcoma.  Brent relapsed over the summer with his treatment induced leukemia.  The RamerNation is shopping for clinical trials. We are enormously grateful for the support of our community.

We have said for many years, that research matters.  We have lamented that only 4% of federal spending at NCI is dedicated to pediatrics.  It is not nearly enough.  We have worked to support pediatric cancer research, raising funds for supplemental grants through non-profits like Kick-It, St. Baldrick's and Alex's Lemonade Stand.  We want to help other families who face a cancer diagnosis in their child, understanding how difficult it is to live with fear and uncertainty.  The Ramers also know the devastating side effects of a 'successful treatment' including organ damage and secondary malignancy.  We have worked to try to find a better way.

Research does indeed matter, and I concede and celebrate that some progress is being made. However, despite our varied efforts, there are currently no alternatives for treating Lauren's osteosarcoma, aside from toxic drugs dosed at levels sufficient to kill her without very careful management.  Brent needs a clinical trial for his leukemia, specifically a cellular therapy.  This alludes to the bit of progress that I mentioned.  We will travel next week to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, a literal disaster zone, in the wake of a hurricane.

It is all madness.

Our difficult reality is more striking in September, when the Ramers typically talk about pediatric cancer and post yellow ribbons.  We usually visit a local field filled with golden sunflowers- a blooming awareness campaign along the highway sponsored by Prayers from Maria, a foundation that supports pediatric brain tumor research.  This year, regrettably, we are far too busy for such things.

I often say that God wouldn't give us so much cancer if we were not supposed to do something about it. I would certainly prefer to support these fundraising efforts than to participate directly in clinical trials.  God, apparently, has other ideas for us.  So, next week we will push back Lauren's chemotherapy treatment a bit so that we can travel to MD Anderson and speak to researchers about both kids.

I try not to think about what our life 'ought to' include, like being able to watch Lauren in the marching band on Friday nights, or seeing her run in cross country meets.  I try not to grieve senior activities and graduation for Brent, recognizing instead that his mental toughness is immeasurable, his endurance remarkable and his overall experience has been nothing that can be taught or prepared for in an academic setting. I truly try to focus on the things that we have been given: prayers, love and support from unexpected places, compassionate care from our team here at Rainbow, family time, even in a hospital.

We currently have the opportunity to speak with folks who are developing cutting edge therapies, a gift that I do not fail to recognize.  My hope is that the best and the brightest have good things to offer us in the month of September.  

I watch my daughter sleep in the dim light, listening to the hospital sounds, the familiar beeps and yellow drips. The scars on Lauren's body increase in number each year, but her sweet soul remains intact.  For this, I am grateful.

We welcome your prayers for our family.

Fantasy Leagues

For years, Dan has put together a fantasy football league.  We are not big gamblers, so for the small cover charge of $20, we could compete for the entire season.  Dan dubbed it “Big Steaks League.”  With the winnings, a big steak dinner is about all you could get.

But this was a way for us to connect with some people that we didn’t see regularly over the fall, touching base, if only for online football smack talk.  And fantasy football had the added benefit of making watching the Browns a bit easier, because while they have consistently struggled on the field (sigh…), I might have a fantasy player on the opposing team.  The matrix of my hopes has become more convoluted and complicated, as you might imagine.

Over the past two nightmarish years, (both for the Browns and for us Ramers) we have continued to watch Cleveland on the gridiron.  However, I have been hopelessly derelict in maintaining my fantasy team.  This was evident on bye weeks, when half my active roster was not even scheduled to play.  I know, annoying.   I am that one in the league, which is the height of rudeness according to fantasy etiquette.  Thank God I am married to the commissioner, although even he is losing patience with me.

It is hard.  We have been pretty busy with cancer, treatments, surgeries and recoveries.  At one point, Dan asked me if I could step away from cancer, from medicine, to let it go and relax.   He has been helping me, to varying degrees of success.

For example, the spring that we wound down with chemo, he put in a garden for me.  I have long loved working the soil, and enjoyed the planning, the planting, the patience, and the hope that goes with gardening. He made a gift of this, to help guide us back to our former life.  Unfortunately, the entire summer was spent finishing chemo, and then day trips for countless follow up appointments at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.  We also took a hospital vacation to New York and Boston, visiting doctors and geneticists: medical tourism at its finest.  You can easily understand the failure of that garden.

I signed up for fantasy last fall, knowing that it would be an important sign to Dan, of us getting back on track.  I failed to adjust my roster.  I am not even sure that I ever logged in.  I had wounds to watch, doctors to organize, and research to prod along.  I wasn’t able to focus on much beyond these occupations, and struggled to follow the Browns, (which is not really saying much, because most people struggle in following them.) 

Seasons change.  Cleveland teams lose.  Surgeries are scheduled.  Cancer is gratefully averted. 

Dan put in another garden this summer, one that we were seldom home to tend, but our 85 pound “puppy” was most helpful with.  It was an epic failure. 

So, in good faith, I tried fantasy again this fall.   I have been distracted, recovering from surgery and getting things pulled together on the home front.  The Browns, in week TWO, trade Trent Richardson, who was heralded as our best player.  Clevelanders despair, and begin to burn all manner of things brown and orange.  Sigh…

The other difficulty in my ability to focus on the Big Steaks League is that I am pretty active in another fantasy.   This is the ‘Big Stakes League.’  Many of the cities are the same, but the teams are a bit different.  Minnesota doesn’t field the Vikings; I get news from the Mayo Clinic.  Los Angeles is the City of Hope.  New York's powerhouse is Sloan Kettering.  Say ‘Boston,’ and I think of Dana Farber, not Tom Brady.  The Tennessee franchise at St. Jude has great promise . It is always worth seeing what Houston is putting out there, because MD Anderson is among the super bowl institutions on my news feed.  I have rather a lot of them, and am encouraged by the developments in their programs.

I have scouts from across the LFS world letting me know who is developing interesting theories, and promoting their exciting ideas.  They will helpfully share what star players they have come across in their oncology travels.  Surgeons, oncologists, geneticists, studies, clinical trials, holistic medicine, all shared with the hope of helping one another with the myriad of needs that always seem to present.   I happen to know of a pretty terrific ‘offensive coordinator’ headed to Arizona.  Cleveland, by the way, has lots of promise in this league.

But the downside of all of this information is the reality that my new LFS friends, these oncological scouts, they are in this same conundrum.  There are fears, concerns, disappointments and a beautiful fighting spirit.  There is love.  I witness much struggle, which even digitally, is hard.

These struggles become my struggles.  And it all serves to remind me that while the Ramers are blessed in this moment, there are no guarantees.  I would very much love to be on the other side of scans, which are on 10/14, for the reassurance they offer me for a time. 

We have the wonderful distraction of ‘birthday season’ right now.  Three of our children have birthdays within 6 weeks of one another.  And I am certainly celebrating this.  I am working hard on not allowing scanxiety and fear to creep in, and taint the gift we have in our medical quiet.

So, on Sunday, the Cleveland Browns played the Minnesota Vikings, and won.  They had a rough 3^rd quarter, but had some really promising plays with a 3rd string quarterback.  You never can tell.  It is only week four.  Perhaps I should try to check my roster. 

The ribbon, this month, is gold

September is pediatric cancer awareness month. 

Didn't know?  Don't feel bad.  I have two kids who have had 3 cancers between them, and I didn't know.  But then again, I am aware of pediatric cancer every day.  I don't need to set aside the thirty days in September to think about it.  We live with pediatric cancer like some hideous knickknack that we cannot ever part with.  I am grateful for the opportunity for this monstrosity to collect dust over the next 6 weeks, whereupon I hope to put it back on the shelf until after Christmas.  Very, very grateful.

But, as many of my friends either anticipate (or dread) the pulling out of the pink ribbons next month, this month's color is yellow. (Didn't know that either?  No worries!)  Dan made a fabulous banner on his facebook page, one that I only barely possess the technological wherewithal to steal.  But I did-so, take that technology!

 

 

 

 

Hollywood and our One Hip Wonder... 

 

Dan had posted something to the effect that we do not look at statistics, mostly because we have found no comfort in them, nor have we ever found that statistics have been relevant to our experience.  We absolutely never say the phrase "What are the odds?" in this house.  With only 400 people in the U.S. with our genetic disorder, well, lets just say we would prefer to take those odds to Vegas with a five dollar bet, and come home bazillionaires. 

 

However, there are some things that statistics can help illuminate.  Pediatric cancer is rare (unless you are a Ramer) According to the American Cancer Society, 11,630 children under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with cancer this year, making it less than 1% of all cancer diagnosis. But, while that may not seem like a lot of children affected in one year across the US, consider that one in 333 girls and one in 300 boys will develop cancer by the age of 20.   

 

While it is generally understood that every cancer is different, and even within "breast cancer," for example, that there are different subtypes each carrying their own treatment protocol and different prognosis, it is not generally understood that children's cancers behave differently than adult cancers.  Also, the considerations for children are vastly different because of their developing bodies, the effect of treatment on their bodies, as well as the length of time that they will live with the unfortunate damage of these toxic treatments. But, because of how rare pediatric cancer overall is, there is not much financial incentive to develop new drugs for kids.  They get the 'hand me down drugs' of the adult cancer world.  In 20 years, only one drug has been developed for kids with cancer.

 

I am not here to complain about the system, or to bash pharmaceutical companies, who are in the business of addressing the needs of the many, and yes, I do recognize, for profit.   Because loads of women get breast cancer, there is great need for new therapies, which is why there have been advances.  Honestly, I am very glad that there is not a more market driven incentive for pediatric cancer drugs.  I am not at all interested in more kids getting cancer.  Naturally.

 

But, that doesn't mean that I wouldn't like more advances, and much more research in pediatric cancer.  Dan and I feel passionately about research, and are hopeful about the collaboration of the Children's Oncology Group, which implements research protocols at hospitals across the country.  Because, while there are enough ladies in a city the size of Cleveland to make up a decent cohort for breast cancer research at either University Hospital or at the Cleveland Clinic, you have to consider that there are not enough children in one geographical area with osteosarcoma or even a more common cancer like leukemia (ALL), to make up a proper research group.  The COG helps coordinate research protocols for children, studying the efficacy of new drugs and treatments at institutions across the country, so that together, the children make one research group.

 

I was asked by a friend about how to best support pediatric cancer.  There are loads of charities, some of which help families directly (which I will talk about at another time) and some who have a mission statement dedicated to raising much needed pediatric research dollars. Not cracking on the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, but less than 4% of their money goes to pediatric research.  These are fine organizations but because their mission statements are much broader, the kids again are lost under the giant cancer umbrella.

 

If you were interested in supporting research on pediatric cancer, you could donate directly to an institution, one like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MD Anderson, or St. Jude's, earmarking your funds for a particular researcher, or research area, noting your interest in pediatrics. (This is akin to buying individual stocks)

 

If that seems like perhaps too much work, to establish which institution or researcher you would like to support, there are charities dedicated to supporting children's cancer research, where you get the most pediatric bang for your buck without sorting through researchers yourself.  (I like to think of them as the 'mutual fund' of pediatric research.)  Here are a few: 

 

Flashes of Hope                             http://www.flashesofhope.org/

Kick It:For Children's Cancer        http://www.kick-it.org/

St. Baldrick's                                  http://www.stbaldricks.org/

Alex's Lemonade Stand                 http://www.alexslemonade.org/

 

We are personally associated with the sister charities Flashes of Hope and Kick It.  Last year, Flashes, whose goal is to photograph every child diagnosed with cancer, until every child is cured, raised $650,000 at the Big Shots and Little Stars event in Cleveland.  Lauren had the opportunity to walk the runway that evening and enjoyed herself immensely while helping that cause.  This year, our family's story will be featured at the event, in an effort to raise some more research dollars. 

 

Kick It, which was begun by Quinn Clarke, a boy diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, began with the idea that children could raise money for pediatric cancer research by playing kickball, Quinn's favorite game.  It has expanded every year, and this year at my children's middle school alone, they raised $31,000 in the month of May.  This money, raised by children, was dedicated to metastatic osteosarcoma research in Brent's name.  Osteosarcoma, being an orphan disease, generally affecting teenage boys, is the redheaded stepchild of research, receiving very little attention or funds.  We are so grateful for those dollars being directed in such a personally meaningful way.

 

The CDC lists cancer as the 2nd leading cause of death of children, after accidents.  We are hoping to push that way down the list.  No child should ever develop cancer, and I have to believe that with the proper resources, there are bright minds that will eventually figure it all out.  We are working on helping to secure the resources for those bright minds, right now. 

 

Any help you would like to offer would be appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is something that I found on the Kick-it website written about both kids, Hollywood and Mayberry:

http://www.cleveland.com/brecksville/index.ssf/2013/06/brecksville-broadview_heights_262.html