I am riding the Courage Classic on July 18-19 to help kids and families with childhood cancer. My hope is to increase awareness and give parents options when confronted with nothing but bad, devastating, and heart-wrenching news that their child is terminally ill with cancer.
Fynn’s Story…
It’s hard to believe it was only 3 years ago that I was planning to ride the Courage Classic with Fynn and the rest of my family. He loved bikes, and we rode together on many occasions. Me on my road or mountain bike, and him hanging out in his Weehoo tag-along bike trailer. He didn’t have much patience for resting and would typically demand “ride bike!” to let me know we needed to get going. I expected a lot of that on our first Courage Classic ride together, but unfortunately, it never happened. God decided his short time on this earth had been long enough at the young age of 7.
Aside from a rare genetic disease called Dup15q and autism, on December 16th, 2016, he was diagnosed with DIPG—Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma—the only pediatric brain cancer that has no cure. In fact, it has made such little progress that there is now a National DIPG Awareness Day on May 17th. This cancer takes every life it infects. It could be weeks or months, or 1-3 years for a lucky one. Although, for what these kids go through, I could hardly call it lucky. Fynn’s fight didn’t last long and we said goodbye to him on April 9th, 2017.
DIPG HAS NO CURE!
When Fynn was diagnosed with DIPG, Colleen and I waited a week after his biopsy surgery for the Oncologist to meet with us. When we finally met, the first words out of his mouth were "It's not good news." Knowing how heart-breaking this news is, there's nothing we want more than one day, parents in the same situation can hear "It’s not good news, BUT, we we can try X or Y."
Now I need your help! Will you make a donation? Every dollar makes a difference for the thousands of infants, children, teens, and young adults fighting childhood cancers. No amount is too small.
Thank you!
The Fynn Fighter Family
