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.
Day 2:
Last year I approached September as a cleansing of thoughts in terms of our cancer journey with Shane. There are certain topics as we move forward that come to mind. These will come in time within the month. Some are difficult and others uplifting.
Heading into the holiday weekend, I will begin with this:
Everyone’s experience with cancer is different. Some stories have happy endings and others not so happy. People may look at our story as sad. It is. We are incredibly proud of our efforts to move forward and continue to keep Shane with us.
Death is not an easy topic for many. I see the look in people’s faces, new and close, when I mention his name or our situation. This is apart of us.
It’s important for us to speak of him and for our children to be comfortable to mention their brother, Shane.
Studies have shown that the traumatic loss of a sibling can lead to many difficulties in adulthood in terms of physical and mental health. The stats are unnerving.
I was given some great advice from an old friend who unknown to me went through this journey with her sibling. It was a gift to have this advice and I can’t truly ever express how much it meant to me.
I will never forget our clinic visit the first time after we returned from Boston. Everyone at CHOP had been briefed on our meeting. They knew, we really KNEW the reality of our situation and the outcome for Shane. Our social worker approached me with care and asked what we needed. I replied: “I need help preparing Chase and Ella.”
Paul and I share the common goal in life to make sure that our children come first. They are our everything. All the practices, school work and their interests in general are our main priority.
I mean isn’t that why you choose to be parents?
Our goal as parents are not only to raise kind and loving children, but for them to realize the world is bigger than themselves.
Chase wanted to do an Alex’s Lemonade Stand ever since Shane was diagnosed. Last year, he successfully raised over $1400.
He enjoyed doing it so much, he committed to doing it again this year.
On Saturday, August 13th, he held a stand in memory of Shane and our friend Antonio. He wants the money to go to CHOP (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) for sarcoma research. Shane and Antonio both had a sarcoma cancer and like us, he realizes the importance of research.
He is proud to tell you that he raised: $523.65 and along with his online donations, the total is $1,548.65!
On Thursday, August 4, 2016, we donated the money raised from our Pearl Jam #tailgate4good with the Phan Cave to Dana Farber Cancer Center. The money will go towards their genetic research of rhabdomyosarcoma in memory of Baby Shane.
A lot of memories came rushing back as we pulled into the parking garage. It was there, that we came to the realization that not much more could be done for Shane in terms of treatment options. We appreciated all that was said during our meeting. It was very helpful to us as we moved forward in our journey. It was important to us to relay that back to them.
The check presentation was held outside of the Jimmy Fund oncology clinic. Sadly, the clinic was full of children. It was a difficult moment for us. However, this is why we do all of this. Without money for research, these clinics will always be filled. In terms of certain types of cancers, it’s almost up to the parents to go out and seek funding for better treatment options in hopes of a cure.
