Every day, hundreds of our childhood cancer Superheroes are on the road, away from home to get lifesaving treatment.  With so few pediatric treatment centers, the average round trip is probably 70-80 miles.  For dozens of children, the journey is much greater, since none of our fine Carolina facilities have all the treatments.

One of our teenagers is going to Chicago for the second time next week for radioembolization which is a specialized type of radiation and is minimally-invasive. It’s a good treatment option for someone with liver cancer whose tumors can’t be operated on. They went for the first time in August 2020 and got great results. Radiation is injected directly into the arteries of the liver daily for 3 days. This is one of the only treatment centers in the world that does this highly specialized radiation.

Another family has just returned from a 2 month stay at City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles, where their daughter took part in a CART clinical trial that is the only known alterative to standard treatments that have failed. We helped them rent a house, transport their car, and with other necessary expenses.

Six CCP families are currently taking their Superheroes to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for specialized care, typically staying for 7-10 days at a time. Due to COVID, some prefer to drive despite the 14+ hours it takes.

A family is on their way to Jacksonville for proton therapy only available to children in a handful of places nationwide. They will be there for six weeks. There are two sweet girls in this family and are providing housing, food and transportation  It’s a long journey and no where in North or South Carolina is there pediatric proton therapy so we make sure if that’s what the medical team believes is the best treatment we get them there!   We are happy to report some of our Proton Therapy children are now off treatment!  We love it when the ring the bell and Thank you for helping them get there!