Our son Tom, who is now 17-years-old, was diagnosed with an optic pathway glioma, now with pontine involvement, when he was only four. He has been through several surgeries, all at Johns-Hopkins, many, many chemotherapy regimens, all prescribed by NYU and/or Duke University, an experimental clinical trial at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and most recently proton beam radiation at Mass General. He was featured in the WABC TV series, "Hopkins 24/7" a few years ago (Episode 5). Up until a few days ago we did not know of CTBTA. It's been a long and at times lonely journey for Tom and our small family. Tom is brave beyond measure and bears the stress of his diagnosis better than we as his parents do. His Mom is a 16-year breast cancer survivor, and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years ago. The only one in our family to have escaped the "big C" is Tom's older brother Sam, who is now 27 years old. Sam has weathered our family's diagnoses news three times and of course has had to exhibit tremendous strength to accommodate. We pray might and day for a cure, as you do. Bless you as an organization and bless those who hold out hope for a day when brain tumors are a thing of the past.
