The Game On Glio Podcast

How can you comprehend become a widower at 35 years old after 16 years with the one you love? How do you make sense of losing that spouse (only 33) 11 months after giving birth to your first child? This is exactly what Alan Johnstone faced when his young 33 year-old healthy wife Anneka was diagnosed with glioblastoma five months after giving birth to their daughter Sienna. Six months after diagnos...

To kick off brain cancer awareness month 2024, I sit down with Roon app creators Rohan Ramakrishna & Vikram Bhaskaran in episode 1 of Season 4 of The Game On Glio Podcast. We dive into the importance of real time information and the need for advocacy when it comes to serious diseases like Glioblastoma. My guests also explain why they felt the need to create an app like Roon. The Roon app offer...

When Eric Wood sat in a delivery room supporting his wife as she gave birth to their child, he didn't expect to find out that his NFL career was over. It was 2018 and the middle of the football season; Wood had played his entire career for the Buffalo Bills football team, but his path there was narrow and included a bit of destiny. Wood knew full well how fortunate he had been, especially since he...

In this episode, Kate sits down with me to discuss the power of hope, faith, family, and never giving up--even when you think all hope is lost. Her foundation, Hope Rises, shares hope-filled news every single day, as well as hosting powerful giveback projects. To date, they have raised over $300,000+ and change countless lives through charitable efforts of love which include the Shine Gold fundrai...

When Amber Jackson met her husband Tim, she describes it, "He came across my sky and lit it up, and now he's gone just as quickly." Amber and Tim were both nurses at the same hospital, and very quickly realized they were soulmates and meant to be together. Within five years they got married and had two beautiful kids. Then it all came crashing down when Tim was diagnosed with brain cancer. Amber s...

At the time of his diagnosis, Chris Baccash had a full time analytics job and spent his weekends racing and training with the Doylestown Bike Works elite cycling team. His accomplishments included the hardest event of the season — the 50-mile Bucks County Classic, in his hometown of Doylestown, PA, with a personal-best time. Of cycling at the time, Chris says, “When else do you get to ride through...

It's hard enough to imagine a young adult getting glioblastoma. But to hear of a baby having it truly tugs at the heart strings. Kelly Barnhart shares her incredible story with us of her 5 year old son Carson's GBM story. A mother of three, a wife, and an educator in the Buffalo school system as well as through Buffalo Hearing and Speech, Kelly has made it her mission to share Carson's pediatric c...

  It's an old phrase, one that has actually been around since the 11th century when Saint George slayed his first "dragon." The more recent old English proverb is "Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you." Basically we win some, we lose some--BUT we always keep going, and we slay one dragon at a time. That is life; life throws us curve balls and all we can do is wait for the next p...

StacheStrong is a 501(c)3 non-profit devoted to raising funds and awareness for brain cancer research in memory of the late GJ Gerner--Co Founder Colin Gerner's brother. The organization has become a beacon of hope for countless individuals and families afflicted by brain cancer. In this episode, Colin recalls, “It all started with a seizure. My 29 year old brother had a seizure. We figured, well...

Mike was diagnosed with glioblastoma in April of 2022. 13 months in, he is doing well and stronger than ever--but it comes at a price. “I know the statistics,” he said. “The statistics for glioblastoma are a median survival of 14 months; half the people are dead by 14 months. The five-year survival is four or five percent.” Mike found the tumor after a seizure while driving home led to a car crash...

In this episode, we talk to Wade Lewis who was diagnosed with glioblastoma at the age of 43. Faith, fortitude, and fight all describe what this episode is about.  Wade shares his brain cancer journey, the intriguing friendship he developed with Dr. Fonkem and how it led to their work in Africa together, and how ministry and his belief in God has given him a new outlook on the path that has been ha...

Lance Kawaguchi's motto is "working with heart" and it shows in all he does for the brain cancer community. The CEO of Cure Brain Cancer Foundation , a nonprofit organization in Australia, Lance is also an internationally recognized executive leader with over 25 years of global finance and banking experience, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Asian Fund for Cancer Research (www. AFCR.org...

"It's hard when someone puts an expiration date on you," said Nick Adamski, glioblastoma thriver and one of our guests for episode 2 of Season 3. Nick, with the support of his wife Diane (ABC7 Chicago News Journalist), has been beating the odds against glioblastoma since December 2020. Walking through this rare cancer is not pretty, nor is it for the faint of heart. When Nick and Diane sat down wi...

In this first episode of Season 3, we sit down with Dr.'s Elad Levy and Ken Snyder of UB Neurosurgery/Buffalo General Hospital and Gates Vascular Institute/Jacobs School of Medicine. They give us rare insight into the work they do, the cutting edge technology being used (including GammaTile Therapy now being offered) and even the emotional toll this field can take. This season we are going to lear...

Our guest today, Marie Alessi, is a celebrated author of the book "Loving Life After Loss" and podcast host of Upspiral Grief. Marie unexpectedly lost her husband and father to their two boys in 2018 to a sudden brain aneurysm. Using her own tools and strong intuition, she created a path back happiness and now shares that with others across the globe. In our last episode of Season 2, Marie and I t...

"I (insert name here) take you (insert name here) to be my lawfully wedded husband/wife. To have and to hold from this day forward. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death parts us." Sound familiar? When we say those vows, we say them theoretically. As if we know that this is what we truly vow, it's what we mean, but we never exp...

    It's hard enough being a parent (at least from everything I witness and see). So, what do you do when you suddenly become a widow, grieving the loss of your spouse while also trying to help your grieving child? Whether the loss is a caregiver, a parent, or even a sibling, a child that experiences loss is going to experience grief differently than we as adults do. Young children may not even un...

    The themes around Episode 9 will have us all reflecting a bit more this holiday season. You wouldn’t know it from the title, but we talk a lot about the act of forgiveness–what it takes to forgive. Not just in forgiving others, but forgiving ourselves. The title, “Cancer isn’t a sniper shot, it’s a grenade,” is a loaded title. In my conversation with our guest, Dr. Randy D’Amico, he expresses...

When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience. Trying to be mindful while in the midst of grief can be challenging. However, learning to lean into it while also leaning into love, loss, and moving forward are part of being mindful...

  I've been thinking a lot lately about my path, specifically, how I got here. All the pieces on the chess board had to move just so in order for me to arrive to exactly where I am today. The Universe has a funny and ironically dark way of pushing us in a direction; priming us for a duty, action, or journey that will require certain skills. Before Mike was diagnosed, I was doing part time radio ho...

In episode 6 we sit down with Dr. John Ruge, a pediatric neurooncologist in Chicago, IL. His passion for finding better treatment options has led to his developing the app Medeligo Oncology.  Dr. Ruge has worked with both adult and pediatric brain cancer patients and families. His philosophy these days is-- "When I walk in the hospital to meet with a new family that has just received the devastati...

I think it's interesting that a protein in our bodies, that we develop when we are young and shuts off as we get older, that's labeled "Survivin" can actually be used to fight Glioblastoma and potentially other rare cancers. A protein called Survivin has the word "survive" in it. Isn't that thought provoking! It's like the Universe is giving us what we need to fight this deadly cancer. Our guest t...

When we think of loss--of the grief we suffer from it, we don't typically see grief as a strength. Grief can either consume us or be used to shatter our fears and sadness and teach us a strength we never knew we had in us. In this episode we talk about the obstacles of moving through grief- the understanding and patience that is needed. Seeing the hope that floats up through our grief is a powerfu...

Being a front-line worker at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic is hard enough. What happens when you go from front-line work to patient? Episode 3 hears the story of Ian Youngblood, a 29 year-old nurse sent to NYC as COVID-19 started to ravage our country. He quickly went from treating others to being treated, but not for COVID, for a grade 3 Anaplastic oligodendroglioma--brain cancer. Three y...

We're taking a trip back to high school chemistry in this episode! The chemical compound H2S, better known as the gaseous chemical Hydrogen Sulfide--the one that puts off a "rotten eggs" smell, is found in many natural environment settings. However, did you know that Hydrogen Sulfide is produced in small amounts in our bodies? This over-looked compound has a variety of important physiological effe...