Damiyah passed away before the Wizards game on Monday, and Wall responded to the heartbreaking news by playing brilliantly in her honor.
After the contest and postgame interview, Wall said goodbye to his friend and offered condolences to her family.
At Dulles Airport, kids fly United to the North Pole
Santa Claus usually does all the traveling, but this time, a group of kids flew from Dulles International Airport to the North Pole to meet the big guy himself.
Now in its 25th year, United Airlines offered a Fantasy flight for hundreds of children with serious diseases. Once in the air, the pilot reached a “top secret altitude” and warned kids to keep the window shades down.
Santa has a mystery passage to the North Pole that he wants to keep a secret from the Grinch.
“Basically, we’re going on a plane to the North Pole and then we’re going to meet Santa,” says Alex Green, 10, who is fighting pediatric cancer. “It makes me happy because, since I have cancer, I’m doing something fun and I can actually go to the North Pole.”
Alex’s mother, Jenny, says he was diagnosed with a Stage 4 Wilms’ Tumor when he was five years old.
“To see all these kids smiling, it’s emotional,” she says. “Pulling into the airport, I got teary eyed seeing all the volunteers that come together and make this happen. It’s wonderful.”
Kids walked through the “North Pole” terminal greeted by dozens of volunteers — including a band, Spongebob Squarepants, Elmo, The Racing Presidents, cheerleaders — and of course, Santa.
Denise Robinson-Palmer, base manager of flight attendants, says she looks forward to this “fantasy flight” every year.
“Today I was with a kid and I got a little choked up, so I had to walk away because this is not a time for us to get into that,” Robinson-Palmer says. “It’s a time to make them feel like today is the most wonderful day to them.”
Three-Year-Old Girl’s Selfless Donation Goes Viral
“To another little girl.”
That’s what 3-year-old Ariana of Winterport, Maine, said when her father Josh Smith asked where her donated hair was going to go.
It was then that the dad of two realized his toddler had a heart that was too big for words.
“I do a charity called Extra Life where I play video games to help raise money for kids,” he said. “Ariana happened to be sitting on my lap when a video played showing a little girl who was bald, lying in a hospital bed with tubes in her.”
When their daughter showed curiosity, Smith and his wife Crystal explained how medicine was what made the child in the video lose her hair.
“Without a second thought, Ariana said ‘Oh, well she can have some of my hair,’” Smith said. “That’s when my wife clued me in that they have these organizations where we could donate it.”
The Smiths chose “Locks of Love” to send Ariana’s generous gift to a child with medical hair loss.
A week later, Ariana was taken to the family hairdresser where 10 inches was cut from her hair.
“It was her first haircut,” Smith told ABC News. “She could be so selfless like that. Her first reaction is ‘How about I give up something that I have so a little girl can feel pretty’.
Smith posted his daughter’s moving gesture on his Imgur page, where it’s received almost 645,000 views in just two days.
“She’ll take an adult-like approach and it’s really amazing,” Smith said. “She is a typical little kid, but if she sees somebody in need, she certainly nurtures them. This made Ariana feel special and she’d definitely like to do it again.”
Tim Duncan donates $247,000 to fund ground-breaking San Antonio Cancer Genome Research Project
San Antonio Spur, Tim Duncan, through the Tim Duncan Foundation and Blackjack Speed Shop, has made a landmark donation of $247,000 to the San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project, a Texas not-for-profit 501 (c) (3), Open Science research project launched in 2012 by START. Based in San Antonio, START’s mission is to accelerate the development of new anticancer drugs through Phase I research. With four clinic sites on three continents (the US, Spain and China), START is the largest provider of Phase I testing and treatment for patients with advanced cancer. START’s Phase I researchers can uniquely claim direct, hands-on involvement with the clinical development of 18 FDA approved anti-cancer drugs that are now in use by oncologists around the world.
The San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project is a one-of-a-kind cancer genome research project that has theunprecedented support of more than 200 surgeons, oncologists, and cancer researchers from a broad spectrum of affiliations. This unparalleled collaboration is enabling researchers to step beyond the institutional barriers that currently fragment and piecemeal cancer research, and makes the San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project the largest community-wide undertaking of its kind.
Through the support and involvement of these participating surgeons, START researchers are collecting fresh tumor tissue from 1000 patients with the 10 most common cancers in San Antonio. The project then aims to perform whole genome sequencing on both the cancerous and normal tissue from each patient. Then, for the first time anywhere, researchers will link this genetic information to the patient’s clinical outcomes. Most significantly, all data will be made available publicly at no cost to researchers worldwide. The project’s promise to make all data freely available is built on the belief that no single investigator or institution has all of the answers and encourages the involvement of outsiders who might bring fresh ideas to the urgent and complex problem of gene abnormalities and cancer.
Like most people, Tim Duncan has been touched personally by cancer, and hopes for a cure for cancer in his lifetime. Duncan says he was drawn to the San Antonio 1000 Cancer Genome Project, “because the information collected will ultimately be shared.”
“The idea that a group of cancer researchers were willing to set aside egos, to make the information freely available and work strictly for the greater good of curing cancer was exactly the type of cancer project I was willing to support,” Duncan said.
Giving Thanks…12-year-old Delaney Clements and her friend 13-year-old Bella Hoffheins panhandle for a cure
Fighting Cancer With Poetry: Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” Cancer Awareness Remix
Barbara Bush’s heartache at losing her three-year-old daughter to leukemia
Talking to her granddaughter, Jenna Bush Hager, the former First Lady, 87, reveals the loss she and former President George H. W. Bush experienced
Barbara Bush, former first lady and grandmother to reporter Jenna Bush Hager, has spoken about losing her three-year-old daughter to leukemia over half a century ago.
In an intimate interview with Jenna, the 87-year-old reveals the heartache she and former President George H. W. Bush, who is called ‘gampy’, experienced after little Robin Bush, Jenna’s aunt, was diagnosed with only two weeks to live.
‘I was combing her hair and holding her hand,’ Mrs Bush recalled on Today. ‘I saw that little body, I saw her spirit go.’
Born on December 20th, 1949, Robin was the youngest of three brothers; and two years younger than her brother, and future 43rd President, George W. Bush.
Jenna said, referring to Robin, who would be 63 years old if she were still alive today: ‘Gampy actually said recently he hopes when he passes away that’s who he will see first.’
‘It is who he’ll see first,’ said Mrs Bush.
‘She was quiet and gentle, and she had lovely little blond curls,’ she added.
At age three, Mrs Bush began to notice her daughter’s energy waning, and took her to the doctor for a simple check-up.
She said: ‘She was listless, she didn’t want to do anything, just wanted to rest, go out and watch cars go by, so I called the doctor and said, “Can I bring Robin out? I think she has spring fever,” and the doctor sort of laughed.
‘We went out and she had a few bruises on her and the doctor took a blood test and said I’ll call you.
‘She told that is Robin had leukemia. “What do you do for leukemia?” Well, she said, “You don’t do anything. She’s going to die,” and we said, “No, I don’t think so”. And she said, “My advice is take her home, love her and in about two weeks she will be gone.”
Instead, the couple took Robin across America to a hospital willing to try treatment on a child.
Five year cure, …really?
Five-year relative survival rates describe the percentage of patients with cancer that are alive five years after their disease is diagnosed. Use of 5-year survival statistics is more useful in aggressive cancers that have a shorter life expectancy following diagnosis (such as lung or pancreatic cancer) and less useful in cases with a long life expectancy such as prostate cancer.
When a patient achieves that magical 5 year survival mark, everyone celebrates the milestone and they are considered by most people to be “cured.” That is not necessarily accurate. What it means is exactly what it implies: They have survived five years since being diagnosed, nothing more. The average age at diagnosis of cancer is 6 for children and 66 for adults. While the chart at the right shows great progress in five year survival rates in childhood cancer from one period to another, it is only comparing five year survival rates, nothing more. While it gives some comfort that we appear to be making good progress, it does not really measure survival beyond a five year period. Using a standard five year survival rate for cancer will take an adult diagnosed with cancer up to age 71, but it only takes a child up to age 11. Has the child really “survived” and beaten cancer? Sadly, the answer for a large number of children is, “No.” We need a more accurate “survival” measurement for children. Kids cancer is not the same as adult cancer and survival for children must last much, much longer than just five years. As we do today, using a five year survival rate for childhood cancer grossly discounts the pitfalls that lay ahead for up to 95% of the survivors. When it is communicated in a way that others outside of the childhood cancer community can fully understand the long term impact cancer has on children, only then will we finally make childhood cancer a real priority. Let’s stop hiding from the reality of childhood cancer by using unrealistic five year “survival” rates. True progress in surviving childhood cancer can not be measured by only looking at the five year period from diagnoses. Today, advocates and medical professionals frequently cite 83% as being the average survival rate for children. In reality, the 30 year survival rate is only 65% overall. A long term survival rate such as this gives a much different and more realistic perspective to the general public who we rely on to help fund research. We’d love to see the American Cancer Society or even the National Cancer Institute to step up and address the need for looking at a more realistic method of measuring survival for children.
The following article was written by CJ Colton in February 2013. Her son is still fighting cancer today and it appears there is no end in sight. It highlights what a child goes through just to get to the five year “survival” point. Studies have proven that survivors of childhood cancer actually are fighting effects of their “life-saving” treatments for the remainder of their lives:
Read More … Five Years Is Not Enough
Ryan Tannehill surprises young cancer patient
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) — A young boy thought he couldn’t be any happier on his final day of chemotherapy, until Dolphin’s quarterback Ryan Tannehill paid him a visit.
It was a memorable moment inside Chris Evert Children’s Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Wednesday, for a young boy who was happy to be done with the toughest battle of his life.
Josue Cruz, the 10-year-old cancer patient, was thrilled his sports hero showed up to celebrate with him. “What’s up?” said Tannehill. “What’s goin’ on? Congrats, you look great! What’s up?”
Cruz ran up to Tannehill and gave him a hug.
Tannehill and his wife, Lauren, made a guest appearance at a Dolphins-themed party that the pediatric cancer center staff threw for Cruz. “Today was a big surprise for me,” said Cruz. “I never thought you were going to be here. Who told you to come?” Cruz asked Tannehill.
“Who told me to come?” replied Tannehill. “Well, I heard you were having a big party, a big celebration for finishing up your chemo.”
Cruz was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in April and was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation since then. But despite his young age, he carried a brave perspective on the potentially deadly disease. “I met a lot of people that had cancer and that were cured,” he said, “so you know that made me say, ‘No, I’m gonna beat cancer. I’m not gonna let cancer take me away.”
This star surprise wasn’t the first time Cruz and the quarterback met. The two formed a special bond over the summer at the pro-quarterback’s Procamps Worldwide Event, held in partnership with Broward Health. By the end of the two-day football camp, Cruz went to a VIP luncheon as Tannehill’s guest.
Months later, the two got back together for a day Cruz will never forget. “There’s just something really special about Josue,” said Lauren Tannehill. “He’s an amazing kid, and he’s totally inspirational for Ryan and I.”
The Tannehills also surprised Cruz and his family with tickets to Thursday night’s Dolphin’s game against the Bills.