Help and Hope Happen Here
Episodes
572 episodes
Loretta Brooks will talk about her early days as a Pediatric Cancer survivor and the advocacy work that she does now along with publishing her book called Lilly's Joy to inspire young people and bring attention to this Pediatric Cancer cause.
Loretta Brooks was diagnosed with a Head and Neck Cancer known as Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma when she was 13 years old in 1991, causing her to miss almost all of her 8th grade school year. Loretta recovered well from that form of cancer and now h...
Nina Gerosa will talk about her daughter Sophia who was diagnosed with High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in April of 2025. Sophia has been through a hard 16 months of treatment but now is in her maintenance phase
Sophia Gerosa was 3 years old in April of 2025 when she was diagnosed with High Risk B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. After receiving great care and treatment from her caregivers at Advent Health For Children in Orlando, Sophia has complete...
Emily Koska will talk about her daughter Miriam's diagnosis of Stage 4 High Risk Nodular Ganglioneuroblastoma in November of 2025 when she was 6 years old and the treatment that she has been through and will still go through.
6 year old Miriam Koska was experiencing leg pain, abdominal pain, fevers, night sweats and fatigue in the fall of 2025 when she was diagnosed with an offshoot of Neuroblastoma known as Ganglioneuroblastoma. This form of Pediatric Cancer has a ...
Jennifer and Sean White will talk about their daughter Olivia who was diagnosed with Megakaryoblastic Leukemia which is a more aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia in February of 2024 and has been making dramatic progress recently with her health.
Megakaryoblastic Leukemia is an even more aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, which always is a difficult form of Pediatric Blood Cancer. Olivia White was 15 months old in February of 2024 when she was diagnosed with this disease. ...
Alyssa Aguilar's 6 year old daughter Lola was diagnosed with B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on Halloween in 2024 and after being attacked by a Fungal Infection, passed away in early March of 2025, just a little over 4 months after her diagnosis.
For the second time in just a few months on this podcast, we heard the story of a Fungal Infection that attacked a child who was in treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and this infection could not be stopped for causing a child to pass a...
Melanie and Joe Wengrod will talk about their daughter Harper who was more than shockingly diagnosed with Stage 3 Sertoli Cell Ovarian Cancer before her 1st birthday at the end of 2024 and she is fighting her battle each and every day.
Harper Wengrod was born on January 12th of 2024 and by the end of that year , a lump on her abdomen that her dad Joe found after Thanksgiving that was thought to be Neuroblastoma was the probable cause. That was not to be the case however as Jo...
Mike Dechristopher will talk about the Dylan Project which he started in 2012, to originally help 1 Pediatric Cancer patient but now buys 10 gifts during the holiday season for many patients and is known as the Real Life Santa Claus.
After hearing the story of a friend that had a child who was diagnosed with a form of Pediatric Cancer, Mike Dechristopher got involved in this Pediatric Cancer cause in 2012 and started the Dylan Project. This Non-Profit now has helped hundred...
Angelica Sharpe will talk about her daughter Lainy who was diagnosed with Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma when she was 12 years old after feeling numbness and paralysis in her legs in the summer of 2023. Lainy passed away in January of 2025 when she was 14.
Lainy Sharpe began to feel numbness in her legs, followed by paralysis when she was 12 years old in the summer of 2023. Her diagnosis was Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma, which as rare of a diagnosis as it gets. Lainy fought as hard as possible befo...
Sarah Lappostato will talk about her daughter Elena who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma when she was 3 years in old in September of 2025 and her Curie score has thankfully gone from 25 to 1 in the last 10 months.
Elena Lappostato was complaining of mouth pain in September of 2025 and just a couple of weeks later, she was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma when she was 3 years old. Since that time , Elena has undergone difficult treatment including 2 autoglous...
Michaela Haywood will talk about her daughter Kaylan who was 11 years old and a champion Gymnast in her home state of Hawaii before being diagnosed with DIPG in February of 2018 and passing away in August, just 6 months later.
After winning the Vault event and finishing 2nd in the All Around Competition in the Hawaii Gymnastics Championship in November of 2017, 11 year old Kaylan Haywood competed for the first time since her winning performance in January of 2018. Wh...
Dana Quiroga will talk about her diagnosis of Osteosarcoma which took place when she was 14 years old in 2023. Dana is now 17, and doing as well as possible as she is getting ready to enter her senior year in High School.
Dana Quiroga felt a pain in her knee during her entire soccer season in 2023 and during that summer this pain did not go away, leading to her diagnosis of the Bone Cancer Osteosarcoma. Dana underwent a replacement for her knee and tibia with a ...
Fran Fulcher will talk about her daughter Grace who was diagnosed with an Anaplastic Astrocytoma which is a form of Pediatric Brain Cancer when she was 16 years old in 2015 and passed away 3 years later when she was 19
Grace Fulcher was 16 years old in 2015 when she began to complain about double vision. Her double vision led to a diagnosis of a non curable Pediatric Brain Tumor known as an Anaplastic Astrocytoma. Grace was given 3 years to live and she did h...
Darline Medina will talk about her beloved daughter Brooklyn who was diagnosed with DIPG in April of 2023, spent 100 days at St. Jude's and went on the ONC 201 Clinical Trial, but passed away on February 17th of 2024, 1 month before her 4th birthday.
Darline Medina's daughter Brooklyn was full of health for the 1st 2 years of her life until the winter of 2023 when Brooklyn began to experience abnormal movements in her left eye. Her eye looked okay when examined by an eye doctor but her walk...
Josh Doud will talk about his son Jameson who was diagnosed with a Midline High Grade Glioma Pediatric Brain Cancer shortly before his 8th birthday in the summer of 2024 and his passing away from this disease less than a year ago on August 12th of 2025.
Jameson Doud was nearing his 8th birthday in August of 2024 when he was diagnosed with a Midline High Grade Glioma Pediatric Brain Cancer. In March of 2025 the Doud family got very good news that there were no signs of any cancer from the most ...
Kelsie Wittmayer's 5 year old daughter Rosie was having fevers every few weeks in May of 2025, and these fevers went unexplained for more than 3 months before she finally was diagnosed with B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in late August
In May of 2025, 5 year old Rosie Wittmayer was found to have a double ear infection and then began to develop fevers every 2-4 weeks. These fevers were checked out regularly but no solution was found , with one possibility floated that she had ...
Zach Arter and Emily Niebur will talk about the non-profit HELP 1 PERSON TODAY which Zach started in August of 2024 as a way to help fill the gaps for Pediatric Cancer patients who are going through treatment from this disease.
Zach Arter had been serving youths in Omaha Nebraska for 15 years in various capacities and then decided to focus on helping Pediatric Cancer patients in August of 2024. That is when he started his HELP 1 PERSON TODAY with this non-profit which...
Toni and Dylan Franklin will talk about their daughter Noelle who was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in May of 2024 and was only able to survive this Bone Cancer for 1 year, as she passed away in May of 2025
As Toni and Dylan Franklin were in the playground with their children Noelle and Dylan in the spring of 2024, Noelle asked her dad to look at a bump that had formed on her leg. Withing a week Noelle was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a very diffi...
Christina Stiverson will talk about her daughter Adelaide ( Addie) who was diagnosed with the very rare Liver Cancer known as Hepatoblastoma as she approached her 2nd birthday in the fall of 2015 and passed away in December of 2016
After being shuttled back and forth between her home and hospital emergency rooms for months in 2015 because of recurring fevers, Addie Stiverson received the very difficult diagnosis of Hepatoblastoma in the autumn of 2015 while visiting famil...
Tristin Mercer's daughter Kinley was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer in the summer of 2022 when she was 4 months old. Kinley's cancer spread very quickly and she passed away on November 12th of 2022, just 7 1/2 months after her birth.
A massive Malignant Rhabdoid Tumor was found on 4 month old Kinley Mercer's left kidney in the summer of 2022 and she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. Upon undergoing chemotherapy treatment, Kinley went through scans that showed ...
Andrea Wilson will talk about her daughter Phoenix who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma in 2017 when she was 3 years old and her older daughter Liberty who's own life was in the balance while Phoenix was in treatment.
Andrea Wilson had two very difficult health crises on her hands, one with her younger daughter Phoenix who was diagnosed with Stage 3 High Risk Neuroblastoma when she was 3 years old in 2017, and one with her older daughter Liberty ...
Shay McAlister is an Independent Journalist who has been investigating the Cluster of DIPG diagnoses that have surrounded 3 counties in Southeastern Kentucky. Shay will talk about this problem and what the powers that be in Kentucky are doing about it
The counties of Knox, Laurel, and Whitley, in Southeastern Kentucky have seen 10 DIPG diagnoses since 2024, an extraordinarily high number of cases in such a condensed area. Shay McAlister is an Independent Journalist who has been investigating...
Caitlyn and CJ Downings 2 year old son Brooks was diagnosed with a Fusion Mesenchymal Tumor in his lung in the spring of 2025, and passed away on October 25th of last year, just 8 months ago.
After experiencing a number of illness when he was 2 years old going into the spring of 2025, Caitlyn and CJ Jennings thought that their beloved son Brooks was experiencing normal illnesses that many toddlers may experience. Unfortunately that ...
Shaya Rees Frum will talk about her beloved sister and best friend Jessie who passed away after a 10 month battle with DIPG that ended with her passing on January 5th of 2012. Shaya is now very involved with the Jessie Rees Foundation.
Shaya Rees Frum was 14 years old when her then 11 year old sister Jessie was diagnosed with DIPG on March 3rd of 2011. Jessie passed away from this terrible Pediatric Brain Cancer on January 5th of 2012, but not before laying the groundwo...
Maribeth Ditmars will talk about her son Christopher who battled Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia before his passing when he was 14 in 2001, successfully battling her own demons, and the loss of her other son Jarrod in July of 2015
Maribeth Ditmars has suffered plenty of heartache and loss for the past 25 years, beginning with the diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 1997 and the subsequent passing of her son Christopher at the age of 14 in 2001. This was followed...
Alisha Harper will talk about her son Chase who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome officially when he was born and 4 years later was diagnosed with Leukemia. Chase is going strong as he is now 9 years old
During Alisha Harper's pregnancy, she was told that there was a 60 percent chance that her son would be born with Down Syndrome. That statement turned out to be a correct one as Chase was born in December of 2016 with this illness and by the ti...