When I was writing the press release announcing the pediatric proton foundation, one thing I tried to explain was the finding out about proton treatment gave us hope at a time that we desperately needed it. I don’t know how to describe finding out my son had cancer. At first, I was in denial though I knew the doctors didn’t have time to wait for me to get to acceptance. Everything from the moment we heard tumor went like lightening. You see my son was paralyzed. There was cancer and there was a tumor pressing on his spinal cord. We agreed to do emergency surgery. In this time and shortly after my son’s initial diagnosis, my father-in-law suggested we look at proton. He called Boston and Jacksonville and both places supported Jacob being considered as a patient. I believe my father-in-law being a chemical engineer understood the terrible toxicity of chemo drugs and the harm it would do to my son’s young body. We heard from the doctor’s themselves that there are no new chemo drugs and the ones that would be used on Jacob were 30 to 40 years old. They cause temporary and permanent damage to the healthy tissues along with the cancer tissue. The only changes that have been made to protocols are how much gets used in what combination and how often. That’s it.
I remember being angry that this was all the choice we had. I began searching online every waking hour in regards to ewing’s sarcoma, the drugs Jacob would be on, the protocol, the clinical trials. Many hours and hours. Slowly, I began to include proton treatment in my research once I understood radiation is part of the cure. My sister-in-law, a nurse, also supplied us with information on proton. Suddenly, I thought my son CAN beat this thing. Doom and gloom turned to hope. He had to be given the best chance of killing the cancer and still leading a normal life. We knew the chemo was bad, but did the radiation phase have to be archaic too? Did we have to watch our son’s back be zapped by 40 year old radiation machines and destroy his little infrastructure? NO, we didn’t.
We fought hard and worked day and night and got our son accepted to MD Anderson’s proton therapy center. This is why we are here today as the Pediatric Proton Foundation. We believe every child deserves to have proton as their radiation therapy when fighting cancer. These children fighting cancer already have the cards stacked against them in so many ways. I understand why proton is often called the “beam of hope”. When life seems bleak and your child faces a possible death sentence, proton is just the bright spot of hope you need, for survival of cancer and survival of the late effects of the treatment itself.
I remember being angry that this was all the choice we had. I began searching online every waking hour in regards to ewing’s sarcoma, the drugs Jacob would be on, the protocol, the clinical trials. Many hours and hours. Slowly, I began to include proton treatment in my research once I understood radiation is part of the cure. My sister-in-law, a nurse, also supplied us with information on proton. Suddenly, I thought my son CAN beat this thing. Doom and gloom turned to hope. He had to be given the best chance of killing the cancer and still leading a normal life. We knew the chemo was bad, but did the radiation phase have to be archaic too? Did we have to watch our son’s back be zapped by 40 year old radiation machines and destroy his little infrastructure? NO, we didn’t.
We fought hard and worked day and night and got our son accepted to MD Anderson’s proton therapy center. This is why we are here today as the Pediatric Proton Foundation. We believe every child deserves to have proton as their radiation therapy when fighting cancer. These children fighting cancer already have the cards stacked against them in so many ways. I understand why proton is often called the “beam of hope”. When life seems bleak and your child faces a possible death sentence, proton is just the bright spot of hope you need, for survival of cancer and survival of the late effects of the treatment itself.
We are “Pro Proton!”
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