With gratitude for Hannah’s Hopeful Hearts
Dr. Jim Olson and I at our 2015 Hannah’s Hopeful Hearts fundraiser
In this season of gratitude, I received a message last week from one of Hannah’s neuro-oncology doctors, Dr. Jim Olson:
Thank you so much for making the trip to the recent PBTRF gathering. I was delighted to see both of you. I wish we had more time to talk, but I had to get home because 70+ friends were gathering there for an event that we were hosting.
Our lab has made some exceptional breakthroughs recently, one that I’m pushing hard to get into clinical trials. It is eliminating pediatric brain tumors in models derived from our pediatric patients at doses that are proving to be safe in our tox studies. Your community’s support enabled us to build the infrastructure and hire the individuals who discovered and engineered this candidate. This many years later, your efforts are still making an impact. Thank you!
Hannah’s Hopeful Hearts supported Jim and his lab of researchers for many years through our main events as well as through the Run of Hope.
Recently, Bill and I were invited to attend a gathering of the guild that hosts the Run of Hope – The Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Fund. Dr. Olson was present along with Hannah’s nurse practitioner, Cory, and another leading doc who was just coming on board Children’s Hospital in the last year of Hannah’s life. Bill and I talked with Dr. Leary, listening to her inspiring research and stories. And even though we barely knew her, she remembered Hannah and our Hannah’s Hopeful Hearts group. We all teared up as we recalled the final attempts to save Hannah’s life.
One child who was more fortunate was Max, the son of Erin Cordry who heads up the PBTRF. Erin mentored me when Hannah was going through the same treatment that her son had endured. Max is now 30 years old and a survivor of the same tumor that took Hannah. It was hard for Bill to see Max at the event that night, imagining what might have been…
But I was so impressed to hear of the work that’s gone on in the last 15 years since Hannah died. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that the advancements in research and treatment that have been developed in those years may have saved her life if she were diagnosed today.
Thank you Hannah’s Hopeful Heart supporters! Your donations and support over the years may not have helped Hannah, but they will surely help other kids diagnosed with brain tumors in the years to come. I know Hannah would be grateful.