Help and Hope Happen Here

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 ju...

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 Ch...

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 putti...

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...

When Eric Rodriguez was 15 years old, he was diagnosed with an Optic Glioma. A few years later, he developed lesions in his mouth which turned into Squamous Cell Carcinoma, a cancer that was found in his head and neck. Eric was able to go into remission for 13 years, but then his cancer returned and he passed away on December 29th of 2021.  Eric's mother Anita will talk about the life that Er...

When Erin Stern was a teenager in San Diego, she worked one summer at a camp for Pediatric Cancer patients. Later, she went to Harvard University where she received her Masters in Cancer Biology. While there, she decided to start her own summer camp which she named Camp Casco.  This camp  welcomes children and adolescents ages 7-17 to come for one week during the summer to enjoy all of the activit...

Back in 2012 Leslee Hacker's daughter Lauren was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. On today's podcast Leslee will talk about the very difficult treatment that Lauren went through at that time , resulting in her getting into remission for 3 years. Then on the night of Lauren's 14th birthday party in 2016, Leslee received the dreaded call that Lauren had relapsed, this time with...

Melissa Wilson started her career as a News Anchor in 2000 and has been at Fox 26 in Houston , Texas for the past 20 years,  where she serves as both a News Anchor and Medical Reporter. Melissa is a many time award winner including receiving multiple Emmy's.  Melissa is also the mother of 15 year old Caleb, who is now a long term survivor after his battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia whi...

Adam La Reau is the Founder of the non profit One Summit and Dianne Lynch is its Executive Director. On today's podcast, they will talk about this amazing organization, which pairs up United States Navy Seal members with Pediatric Cancer patients. The hope is  that these kids will be taught life skills that will help them through their individual cancer battles. With Rock Climbing being the c...

Jack Hoffman was diagnosed with Brain Cancer when he was 5 1/2 years old. Eventually, the Hoffman family who lives in Nebraska, came to Boston to get treatment at Boston Children's Hospital and Dana Farber.  Jack is about to become 17 years old , he is a junior in high school, and is doing well enough that he is playing  on his high school's  football team. Bri will also talk about the T...

Dr. Rachel Orgel was diagnosed with a Franz tumor on her pancreas when she was living in Okinawa, Japan in 8th grade. This very rare cancer is known as a Solid and Epithileal  Neoplasm of the Pancreas.  Rachel had a relapse when she was a high school junior and then again when she was a student at the University of Florida.  She had one final surgery to remove the tail of her pancreas and this has...

Dr. Todd Druley  will talk about a number of subjects on today's Podcast. One of his major goals is to improve molecular diagnostics for these kids who suffer from a variety of cancers, and he will also discuss the cases with children who have Down Syndrome and have Birth Defects in relation to their chances of being diagnosed with some form of Pediatric Cancer. Recently named the Chief Medic...

Summer Germann has a background in Product Development. After her 10 year old brother Mac died from Leukemia in 2002, Summer thought for a long time about how she wanted to honor the memory of her brother. After seeing a friend's daughter who was being treated for cancer wearing a drab hospital gown, Summer decided to use her product development skills to design a new hospital gown, with a mu...

In 2007,  Lois Wells, the mother of Concord Carlisle High School Assistant boys soccer coach Steve Wells passed away from Ovarian Cancer. As a response, Head Coach Ray Pavlik decided to honor Steve and Lois by organizing a soccer game between Concord Carlisle and Boston Latin  which raised $8000 for the fight against this disease. That was just the beginning. This one soccer game has became an ama...

Dana Norrod will talk about her son Corbin, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 Neuroblastoma when he was 6 months old. After some early scares about his legs and his heart, Corbin will be 10 years old in October and is doing as well as possible health wise. Dana is the Operations Manager for the Non Profit Nellies Champions For Kids and will talk about her role there, as well as talking briefly about...

Dr. Lisa Diller has had many titles during her great career at Dana Farber and Boston Children's Hospital. These titles include being the Chief Medical Officer at Dana Farber, the Vice Chair of Pediatric Oncology at Dana Farber,  and the Director of the David Perini Quality of Life Clinic for Pediatric Cancer Survivors. On today's Podcast Dr. Diller will talk about the difficulty of Neur...

Jon and Jen Wall's son Zach was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in January of 2021. Unfortunately this cancer had already spread to his lungs which cut Zach's chances of survival to no more than 30 percent.  Despite an above the knee amputation of his leg  and chemotherapy treatments, Zach passed away from this bone cancer on November 5th of 2021 at the age of 16 1/2. Jon and Jenn have found...

After being diagnosed with the pediatric brain cancer Medulloblastoma in 2004, Elizabeth Allen was able to survive her battle and move on to where she is now a graduate student at Tufts University, where she is studying nutrition, epidemiology, data science, and public health. Elizabeth will discuss the fact that of the many important facets of Pediatric Cancer and how they affect these kids, the...

Sharon Snyder's 2 year old son Kyle passed away after an 8 month battle with High Risk T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2001.  Sharon's response to the passing of her beloved son was to start the Kisses For Kyle Foundation which has helped 500 families since its inception. On today's podcast, Sharon will talk about the too short life of Kyle and her foundation which has 2 miss...

Hayley and Justin Dickens 4 year old daughter Kallie passed away from Pediatric Brian Cancer on May 7th of this year, exactly 2 months before we recorded this podcast.  Hayley and Justin of course are still very much in the grieving process, but still wanted to talk about their beloved daughter and what she went through before her passing.  With amazing class and dignity Hayley and Justin were abl...

While playing soccer for her high school team as a sophomore in 2010, Hanna Jorgenson felt pain in her right hip. This hip pain turned out to be Osteosarcoma.  After a grueling 8 month treatment protocol that included amputations of her right leg, hip, and half of her pelvis, Hanna was declared free of cancer. She went on to graduate from high school and while at the University of Minnesota Duluth...

Jim and Dori Sexton's 3 year old son passed away from Neuroblastoma in 1993 after an intense 9 month treatment protocol. Disappointed by the lack of research that became apparent to Jim during his son's pediatric cancer fight, Jim and Dori started the Neuroblastoma Children's Cancer Society Non Profit in 1994.  Their non profit is now approaching 30 years of helping kids and their f...

When Kathleen Casey's son Barrett (Bear) was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor in the late 1980's, she was told that this kidney cancer was highly curable and the expectation at that time was that her son would recover and be able to lead a good life which many children diagnosed with this cancer are able to do.  Unfortunately, things turned south rather quickly and after a 5 1/2 year battle ,...

Marian Newell's son Jesse was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma when he was 11 years old in 2001. This diagnosis led to a relapse which turned out to be Leukemia. Marian and her daughter Samantha will talk about their beloved son and brother who did as much living as possible until his passing in July of 2004.  With prior encouragement from Jesse, Marian started the Jesse's Wish Founda...

After experiencing symptoms that seemed like she had a cold, Laura Rapa's daughter McCoy was diagnosed with High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when she was 4 years old. After a very difficult 1st year, McCoy was able to end her treatment on her 7th birthday which took place on March 19th of this year. Laura will talk about how McCoy is doing and how Laura has been able to return to her Hi...