2nd Annual Holiday Campaign:
‘Tis the season! The season of giving!
This holiday season, make a difference.
Help Joshua’s Wish make the WISH for a “CURE” a reality!
Dear Friend:
Joshua Solomon would have been 7 years old this year. In August 2008, at the age of 4, Joshua was diagnosed with an inoperable Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a type of brain tumor. This deadly tumor claimed his life in less than a year. In fact, up to 99.9% of children with DIPG die within a year of diagnosis. A cure for this tumor remains elusive.
Every 9 minutes a child is diagnosed with brain cancer, and brain cancer claims more lives than any other childhood disease. Yet medical research to find a cure for pediatric brain cancer is the most underfunded, and pediatric brain cancer is one of the few cancers that have not had a significant decrease in mortality.
We established Joshua’s Wish, Inc., primarily to raise funds to support medical research toward finding a cure for pediatric brain tumors, and to raise awareness of childhood cancer. As we come to the end of a successful year, we want to thank everyone who has contributed to that success. This year we donated $7,000.00 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital specifically towards finding a cure for DIPG. We also donated $5,000.00 to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for research on inoperable brain tumors.
Lionel Chow, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor at Cincinnati Children Hospital and Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of Joshua’s Wish, explains why research dollars are so important:
“We don’t know why children with DIPG have such advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. We don’t know why these tumors respond so poorly, if at all, to treatment with high doses of radiation and chemotherapy that otherwise would kill many normal tissues in the body. Most of all, we don’t know why children, many of them preschoolers whose brains are still developing and full of potential, are at highest risk of contracting this devastating form of cancer. These are some of the questions that researchers are asking in the hope that the answers will point us towards a cure for DIPG. This research takes money and people, both of which are in short supply. One of the missions of Joshua’s Wish is to raise awareness of childhood cancer in general and DIPG in particular in the community.”
In this second annual appeal, we turn once again to our friends and supporters. We want and need to do more. No parent should have to hear the words, “Your child is terminal.” Instead of buying another tie, another toy, another t-shirt, please consider making a tax deductible donation to Joshua’s Wish in honor of or in memory of someone special to you.
Thank you for being a part of finding a cure. May God bless you and yours this holiday season!
Labrina Solomon
Founder and President
Joshua’s Wish Foundation