Meet the 2013 Parkway Run & Walk Patient Ambassadors, who were also spokespeople for The Cancer Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September 2013. These current and former patients help us understand why greater awareness of pediatric cancers is so critical.
Transcript
Antonio, 16, Ewing Sarcoma
Antonio: You could have, like,the perfect life and be happy every day, and then all of the sudden, if something happens to you, you feel grateful for everything you have.
Photographer: Little smile -- I'm going to get that, right there, yep. Great.
Interviewer: Tell me about the type of cancer that you have. What is it?
Antonio: It is Ewing Sarcoma. It's a rare bone cancer. Soccer and music are my life, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is very unique. It's like another house. Like, it's like your family. They help me, like, "Yeah, you're going to play again. You're going to do this. You're going to do that." They're like, "You're going to do it." And I'm like, "Okay." Every patient here is strong, and I know every patient here is special. And I still feel like there's hope for everyone here. The more people that reach out to me, the more people that care, the more strength I build up.
Hailey, 4, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Interviewer: Do you like to sing?
Hailey: Yeah.
Interviewer: What's your favorite song?
Hailey: Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are. Speak up for me.
Callum, 14, Lymphoma
Director: Callum, mark.
Photographer: Turn your head a little bit to the right. Good.
Callum: I'm Callum Harding, and I'm 14 years old. One kid looked at me and said, "Wow, your neck looks huge." And it turned out that it was actually lymphoma.
Callum's Mother: When we were here at CHOP as patients and family, we were given everything, every kind of support we could need. They're absolutely there to hold you, absolutely.
Interviewer: So how are you feeling today?
Callum: Excellent, actually. My counts are coming back up. I'm getting a lot healthier, playing sports, doing stuff like that, being like a normal kid.
Callum's Mother: Now I don't want to stop giving back, not just to CHOP but all the children that will keep coming through these doors. I want them to keep having all the faith and hope that Callum received from here.
Callum: I care for CHOP and I want to give back to CHOP because they were such a great hospital to me, and they just saved my life.
Callum's Mother: One in 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they're 20.
Callum: I was 14 years old when I was diagnosed.
Callum's Mother: We need money for research.
Dr. Jay Storm, Neurosurgeon
Mary: Out came the sun and dried up all the rain, and the itsy, bitsy spider went up the spout again.
Jay Storm, MD: Every week I have to sit down and talk to a family about one of their children being diagnosed
with a brain tumor.
Naya: I started having really bad headaches and stomachaches sometimes, so that's when they found out I had the tumor and I had to have surgery.
Jay Storm, MD: I'm Jay Storm, one of the neurosurgeons at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I'm Naya's surgeon. I'm Mary's surgeon. I, with my partner, Dr. Adam Resnick, run a research laboratory looking for treatments for brain tumors. Every year, more than 2,000 children are diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Mary's Mother: Mary is four years old. She was diagnosed with medulloblastoma when she was three, and she had surgery here at CHOP to have a brain tumor removed.
Jay Storm, MD: Pediatric brain tumors are the most common cause of tumor deaths in children. That's why it's so imperative for us to find a cure. Unfortunately, though, the funding from the government and the NIH is quite sparse when it comes to pediatric tumors.
Interviewer: Mary, how are you doing right now?
Mary: I'm good.
Mary's Mother: Really good.
Jay Storm, MD: There are very few funds out there for pediatric brain tumors, so it's quite important for us to get out there and educate the community and the families and to have philanthropic support.
Naya: Speak up for me.
Mary's Mother: We need money for research.
Jay Storm, MD: So the long-term goal that we have is to raise as much money as we can to make as many improvements as quickly as we can. And ultimately, the goal would be to find a cure for these tumors.
Interviewer: Do you like bugs?
Mary: Yeah, butterflies.
Run for All of Us
Interviewer: I heard that you like trains. Is that true? Yeah? What's so cool about trains?
Shawn: Um, they can take you somewhere.
Shawn's Father: My son Shawn was diagnosed with leukemia on his fifth birthday.
Mary's Mother: Mary had surgery here at CHOP to have a brain tumor removed.
Mary: I had some icky stuff inside me.
Interviewer: And what happened to it?
Mary: And now they take it all out.
Joey's Mother: Joey was sent down here to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to be treated.
Joey: It was kind of hard for me to breathe, and I got really tired really easily.
Courtney: When I first got diagnosed, I learned to appreciate the simplest things in life, like being able to get up and get your own bowl of cereal or getting in the shower by yourself. Because, until those things are threatened, you never really understand how gracious you should be for having them in the first place.
Callum: I'm Callum Harding, and I'm 14 years old.
Callum's Mother: When we were here at CHOP as patients and family, we were given every kind of support we could need.
Naya: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is helpful to help you understand your disease and to help you Get through it.
Antonio: You could have, like, the perfect life and be happy every day, and then all the sudden, if something happens to you, you feel grateful for everything you have.
Hailey: Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are.
Courtney: It just amazes me that the little kids here, they don't say, "Oh, I'm just going to be sad today because I have cancer." They don't understand that, so they just keep going. And they have such resilience, and I admire that.
Interviewer: What do you feel like now?
Joey: I feel pretty good.
Callum: I'm getting a lot healthier, playing sports, being like a normal kid.
Shawn's Father: I can't express how wonderful it is coming here.
Courtney: I'm done. I'm nine months out of remission. I haven't been inpatient in nine months, but I still always find a reason to go back just to see the nurses just because they're all so special to me.
Antonio: There's hope for everyone here.
Mary: The people on the bus go up and down, all through the town.
Callum's Mother: One in 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they're 20.
Mary's Mother: We need money.
Callum's Mother: We need money.
Courtney: We need money for research.
Naya: I heard about the Parkway Run. I think that's going to be pretty fun. Hopefully, some of my friends
will walk with me or something.
Antonio: Run for me.
Courtney: Walk for me.
Mary's Mother: Run for my daughter.
Hailey: Speak up for me.
Joey's Mother: Walk for my son.
Callum: Walk for me.
Shawn's Father: Run for my son.
Shawn: Run for all of us.
Related Centers and Programs: Cancer Center