Childhood Cancer Talk Radio Podcasts

The Run for the White House is a grassroots movement of runners and workout enthusiasts all rallying with their personal brand of activism to support awareness for childhood cancer, using the social media platform of Facebook to share their activities and motivations. Brian Jones's mission with the Run for the White House quickly emerged to be making childhood cancer research a national priority....

The gold ribbon and the childhood cancer awareness movement started with a few good moms (and dads) in the 1970s... Ruth Hoffman, CEO of the American Childhood Cancer Organization, walks us through the journey to today and Amazon's million gold ribbon boxes! "Still, there's a long way to go..." says Hoffman, long time advocate for children with cancer. ACCO is unparalleled with its information and...

Annette Leslie is a mom who has been through the harrowing experience of losing her son to medulloblastoma in 2010. His extraordinary life and character inspired the Carson Leslie Foundation's inception that same year, in Dallas Texas, and launched her into a world of advocacy for children with cancer, pediatric cancer research, and working closely with legislators to promote the prioritization of...

Beth Stefanacci and Carina Trenka join us to share their experience and agenda with Go4theGoal, founded in 2006 shortly after 13-year-old Richard Stefanacci was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma. During his treatment, his family quickly became aware of the lack of assistance available to families battling pediatric cancers. Go4theGoal's unwavering mission is to improve the lives of children battling...

Ellie Waters was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma at the age of 14 and endured the heavy-duty treatments that this frightening disease necessitates, and is now at 16 a vibrant, bigger than life personality devoted to helping other children and teens with cancer. She comes to us from Northamptonshire in the UK with her twin sister Olivia and mother Sam Waters, each contributing to this stor...

Nicole Vathy, single mom of seven, shares her journey with her youngest, Shawn, who has been diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. Shawn is one of the few who survive past the year mark to two years with a stable tumor. Nicole candidly shares with us this very difficult road with humor, horse sense, and a mother's love. Go for the Goal and Punt organizations are local childhood cancer g...

Suzanne Gwynn has served as a critical care nurse for more than 35 years, in both the United States and Canada. During the first decade of her career, she served medically fragile patients who suffered from a variety of life limiting diseases in acute care settings. These experiences solidified her dedication to the field and encouraged her desire to specialize. She shares with us today her vision...

Al Gustafson is on the Advisory Council of the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium and serves on the Board of Swifty Foundation, among several others; in addition to his work in ministry, Al is the president of the Gustafson Family Foundation, a private foundation promoting the development and education of young children at risk. His son Michael was diagnosed with medullablastoma which unfort...

Caitlin joins us with her mom Kelly to update her progress since treatement for BPDCN, Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm, a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. Caitlin describes as best she can her experience with chemotherapy, radiation, bone marrow transplant, and the tough decisions a very young girl has had to make with her family. Caitlin's grace and sense of hope is inspiring; s...

From Monterrey Mexico, childhood cancer advocate Christina Wascher joins the show with Kristoffer Nordstrom, father to 5-year-old Linnea who is currently undergoing treatment there for DIPG, with hopeful success 6 weeks into treatment. The Nordstrom family is from Sweden and they are prepared to remain at least six months in Mexico for Linnea's treatment. With Dr.s Siller, Garcia and Rodriguez, ea...

“Eight years ago, a 15 month-old little boy with platinum blond ringlets and bright blue eyes was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer that results in around 255 deaths/year in the United States. Based on the size, location and maturity of his tumor, the toddler had less than 50% chance to live long enough to attend kindergarten… Unlike most parents of children newly diagnose...

Live from Roy's 100 mi Run for Christopher in Santa Clarita, CA, Roy Wiegand joins us for news on his progress, the support of the local community for his efforts to raise funds for the Michael Hoefflin Foundation. We are joined by BethAnn Telford, veteran of the World Marathon Challenge, to support Roy and to hear about her accomplishments and challenges, with conversation between runners, with p...

Sophie Ryan, daughter of Founder and CEO of CannaKids Tracy Ryan, inspired the birth of CannaKids. Sophie was diagnosed at 8 1/2 months old with an extremely rare brain tumor called an Optic Pathway Glioma; after using cannabis oil in combination with her chemo protocol, Sophie’s tumor shrunk by over 95%, a tumor which doctors said minimal shrinkage would be a best-case scenario. Doctors also said...

Who knew so much was beginning in Santa Clarita, CA, a medium-sized community with a significant influence and leadership in caring for others. Childhood Cancer is not a comfortable subject for anyone, yet the unspoken rule of family is ingrained in certain members of this community, and it dominates here. I'm talking about the Michael Hoefflin Foundation; I'm referring to Roy Wiegand, ultra dista...

Professionally, Theresa Beech has had 20 years of experience as a space engineer designing satellite mission ground systems. She has worked as a ground systems engineer, technical lead, subject matter expert, and program manager for a wide variety of satellite ground systems around the world. She comes to Childhood Cancer Talk Radio with the story of her son, Daniel, who's battle with osteosarcoma...

G-TAC founder and Executive Director of MaxCure Foundation Jonathan Agin, and G-TAC Medical Advisory Board Member Dr. Sabine Mueller, top neuro-oncology researcher and clinical expert at UCSF, discuss a new concierge-type service for families of the newly-diagnosed with DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma) to more expediently direct them to more effective combinatory therapeutic treatments to w...

CCTR interviews Christine Hanlon, Executive Director of the KIDS Campaign or Kindness In Doing Service, a 501(c)3 charitable organization devoted to sharing love and service with the childhood cancer community. Christine lives in the greater Tampa Bay area in Florida with her son Dylan, a survivor of Ewings sarcoma. Melanie Crowell, also an executive board member, joins the conversation about the...

A warning to listeners, this contains emotionally sensitive material. CCTR interviews Judith Jaimes Contreras, mom to Ruben who is suffering through the progression of DIPG, a deadly pediatric brain tumor. She candidly shares the reality that hundreds of other families in the US are facing right now: the challenge of acceptance of the terminal nature of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, and the ag...

Christina Bouraimi (mother) and Nick Maroulis (nurse) join us on CCTalkRadio from Athens, Greece to tell the story of a brave young man Theodore who lives day by day with progressed symptoms of Batten Disease, CLN3. Christina describes the fairy-tale like joy of life prior to Batten, and the nightmare that ensued as her youngest of two boys went through the journey of diagnosis with Batten Juvenil...

On April 13 2017 Childhood Cancer Talk Radio interviewed Roy Wiegand of Burbank CA, suburb of Los Angeles, a local free-lance musician with an evolving career as ultra-distance runner and advocate for children with cancer. Roy began running later in life in his early forties, and has been "ultra-running" for about 7 years now, prompted initially by his association through his church with an Ethiop...

CCTR interviews Elizabeth Psar, an attorney with a focus in Juvenile law now on a mission against DIPG with the Julia Barbara Foundation. The discussion includes the realities of DIPG and her 2 1/2 year old daughter Julia, and the unavoidable effects of the experience of losing a child to a previously unknown killer. Julia's legacy is funding for DIPG research and a nationwide effort in support of...

Childhood Cancer Talk Radio interviews Patrick Mahoney from the Office of Advocacy Relations (OAR) at NCI. The March 16 discussion included a brief history of the National Cancer Institute, it's role as a scientific research institution as well as resource of support and direction for millions afflicted with cancer. "We want people to contact us...let us know their greatest concerns to better repr...

Amperell Williams joins us on CCTR to talk candidly about her experience with her son, Caleb, who was diagnosed at the age of 5 with T-cell Lymphoblastomic Lymphoma. The Williams family was challenged with financial difficulty, the stress of toxic treatments and the devastating loss of her "miracle" baby. She describes how this unimaginably difficult experience transformed her life into one of giv...

Rhodemann Li and Clayton Larsen, co-founders of Vesselon describe the unique blending of two technologies into one platform effectively solving the problem of the blood-brain barrier in treating brain cancer. Using ultrasound and micro-bubbles, the future of pediatric brain cancer treatment could include a simple hand-held device enhancing the delivery of medication to the cancer, even the most di...

Today's guest, Danielle Leach, gives the childhood cancer community helpful information about advocacy, being a parent of a child with cancer, bereavement, experience with the non-profit health industry, and more practical advice for parents. There are many ways to advocate; you don't have to go to Washington and talk to Congress to be a strong advocate for children with cancer. We learn about Mas...