In most cases when you are touched by a cause and motivated to take action it’s typically because it’s affected you or someone close to you. Because of an introduction and professional referral to Turn It GoldFund, I thought my connection would be out of a general care for children, out of my desire to engage and help fight against this horrific disease.
After working on this cause for just two months, all in one week, the cause hit me. Never would have I imagined that my best friend’s nephew at age 4 would go into immediate surgery for what the doctors thought was epilepsy, but turned out to be a rare brain cancer. Within that same week, her best friend’s 5-month old son died from neuroblastoma. I don’t have children. I’m an aunt to 13 kids and at age 40, I had never even heard of neuroblastoma until I met Charlie Dina. Now, within two months, two children close to me were fighting for their lives. One has sadly passed. This loss, this being so closely affected by childhood cancer has me wondering why after 30 years, only 4% of cancer research is focused on kids. Why? Their lives are precious. The milestones of one’s life haven’t even begun to take affect. If we think of ourselves as children and the purity of play and enjoyment that time should bring, it’s obvious that being brave shouldn’t have to come in fighting for their life, it should be born out of those moments that are natural: beginning school, meeting new people, trying something new, the lesser on the bravery scale. Cancer has a cure and we need to discover it, together. Together our circle needs a stronger barrier; united we can built it.
