Turning the Page

We have officially turned the page to a new year filled with refreshed resolutions, opportunities, and goals. While the goal for the Beat Childhood Cancer Foundation will always remain the same, we are grateful to start the year with renewed pages and hope.

For some, the start of a new year brings apprehension and uncertainty. For many years, I was one of those people. Following my son Jack's diagnosis with cancer, I dreaded turning the page. Each transition to a new month, new season, or new year during his illness felt like turning a page into a frightening unknown; and each time I turned the page, I silently pleaded and prayed that the pages to come would include him.

It is difficult to turn the page when you worry your loved ones might not be part of the ongoing story. From the moment a child is diagnosed with cancer, families enter a state of terrifying insecurity that is only matched with interminable hope. We stay positive and smile while hiding the fear and pushing back the ever-present worry that our child's story will not have a happy ending.

And while my calendar holds dates I would prefer to skip, I can say with great conviction that my hopes and the hopes of the Beat Childhood Cancer Foundation remain indefensible. Even better, every child, everywhere will always be part of the heart and hope on our pages. We welcome you to share your stories, your victories, and your memories so that the pages we fill will continue to include the names, the faces, and the love of the children who inspire and guide us every day.

We spent 2024 refreshing the story we tell about the Beat Childhood Cancer Foundation. From a small group of parents piecing together support for the work of one doctor trying to use one novel drug to help kids with neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma, the Foundation is now aimed at beating all pediatric solid tumor cancers utilizing the knowledge occupied in more than 20,000 genes with doctors at more than 50 hospitals and universities worldwide utilizing the 21 clinical trials opened and the additional trials planned for this year alone. We have turned the page and set our sights on bigger, bolder, braver objectives. We are going to try and get away with beating cancer in kids, but we can't do it without you.

Please take a moment to let us reintroduce ourselves to you on our refreshed website. We resolve to make it easy to find ways to get involved, take action, and grow golden hope. I am asked often how I can still have hope when my worst fears were realized; my response, the pages of my calendar and my story will always include Jack. I carry his hope with me and I feel the collective hope of the childhood cancer community in everything I do, in everything the Foundation does, and in every page that is turned toward progress.

Of all the resolutions we long to accomplish personally and professionally in a new year or any time of year, let us not forget the ways in which we can be change-agents of support, compassion, and thoughtfulness. Let us resolve to be the encouragement to remind each other that the story is far from over, the pages can always be filled with new opportunities, and hope is not just a fleeting goal, it is the reality we write on our hearts.