About
Shane’s Future Days is a 501(c)(3) volunteer non-profit foundation whose mission is to raise awareness, research funds and assist families currently battling alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and other high risk childhood cancers. EIN: 47-2556395
What is Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma?
Click below to learn more about this rare childhood cancer and what we can do to fight it.
What does your donation goes towards?
Rhabdomyosarcoma is currently non-curable pediatric cancer and your donation goes directly to the research to help fight it.
About Shane: Shane is our third child and our family’s connection to childhood cancer. Shane’s life may have seemed short to some, but those who were touched by his gentle spirit understood that the quality of his life far exceeded the quantity of time. Whether playing nerf with his brother Chase, or making us laugh as he danced to Frozen songs with his sister Ella, Shane taught us the value of perseverance and hope. Even though Shane was diagnosed at 8 months with an incurable childhood muscle cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma, Shane always found a way to make us smile.
Shane’s Legacy: Paul and I knew Shane was among the 1 in 5 children whose cancer has no cure. When treatments were no longer working, we wanted to help other parents of children like Shane in the future. So, we donated his tumors to further alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma research. Shane’s tumor became a cell line, shared many times around the world. His tumor also became an Avatar Mouse, publicly available to all researchers and used to discover an Achilles’ Heel of rhabdomyosarcoma, published as the cover article of the scientific journal, Science Signaling. A national clinical trial resulted. Shane’s tumors’ DNA findings can be downloaded for research from a public data- base. Altogether, Shane’s tumor has been a part of discoveries in more than a half dozen scientific publications.
About Shane’s Inspiration: Paul and I created Shane’s Future Days to raise awareness, support scientific research and support families in the Philadelphia area battling currently nondurable childhood cancers. In addition to donating Shane’s tumors for research, we have funded research projects and purchased lab equipment for cc-TDI (www.cc-TDI.org), as well as serving as board members and volunteering our time to the organization. We work very closely with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Palliative Care Team who provide the world’s best care to patients with currently incurable childhood cancers. We collect gift cards and support families during the grieving process. We are currently working to create a music program in Shane’s honor with them. We also adopt local families during the holidays and provide them with holiday gift wishes.
About your partnership: These past two years has been like no other. The COVID-19 pandemic created obstacles, but Shane’s Future Days rose to the occasion. We have continued working for the children and their families affected by childhood cancer. We look forward to the upcoming 2022 season and being able to hold in person events.
With gratitude,
Michele and Paul Metzgar
Shane’s mom and dad
This year’s celebration of life will be different than any other.
We are entering our 6th year of this event and celebrating Shane’s 7th birthday.
A new year, a new celebration is coming your way!
If you follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HelpShaneFightCancer), you know we had a busy December.
With the help of our supporters and the Kendra Scott store in King of Prussia Mall, we were able to support families through the Kisses for Kyle Foundation and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Palliative Care Team. We bought individuals gifts and gift cards from KFK and gave the PACT team, as well as a another local organization that helps families through CHOP over $1,000 in gift cards.
So, we enter a new year….2020.
I understand the anticipation of starting anew, seeing where the New Year takes you, but it’s also a reminder of another year without Shane.
Don’t get me wrong, we celebrate the anticipation with the kids, make resolutions, reflect back on the year and I wake up positive to greet the New Year. It’s just that we are missing a piece of our puzzle, our family….the life we never got to see in the last 4 years of this decade.
We missed birthdays—2, 3, 4, 5 & 6. Shane missed being a big brother, family vacations, the start of school and team sports, the list could go on.
HOWEVER…
What we can focus on is
His legacy
Our memories
Things we can do in the future to remind us of how strong we are from what we’ve been through.
We are so thankful for the success of Shane’s Future Days from the beginning to now. We are incredibly proud of the progress of Shane’s tumor donation and the research it has led to, as well as our continued partnership with Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute and CHOP’s PACT team.
We are blessed to have met so many through our journey and to all of you who have encouraged us, cried with us, supported us and created this with us.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
May the New Year and new decade bring health, happiness and a CURE!
Day 1
It’s here…September.
For most, it’s the new beginning of another school year. Some parents are full of worry as their kids begin, hoping they like their teacher, find friends and flourish during the school year.
We have those same thoughts, but most of all September brings us back to the most difficult part of our lives.
September is childhood cancer month. It’s our time of reflection, and time to raise our voices and remind people that kids are dying everyday from a disease where there are not enough treatment options, not enough funding and not enough attention given.
We’ve shared this month with so many other families since 2014. It’s changed us. It’s shown us what is important in life. It has us fighting on a daily basis to make a difference for childhood cancer research.
Thank you for sharing Shane’s journey. Cancer is terrible at any age, but when it’s a child whose life barely even began, there is no comparison. If we don’t stand up for Shane and other children like him, who will?
*I will be posting every day for the month of September to raise awareness for childhood cancer. Follow us at: https://www.facebook.com/HelpShaneFightCancer/
#childhoodcancerawareness #gogoldinseptember #shanesfuturedays#HelpShaneFightCancer #SFD