Small & Gutsy features the Isabella Santos Foundation

Being the mother of 5 children, my 5th one, adopted later in his life and mine, the thought of losing any one of them, is unimaginable. This episode is about the unimaginable - a mother, a family, who lost a beautiful, funny, feisty, smart, caring, courageous 7-year-old to cancer. As many of you know, I have had my personal battle with cancer and currently, my younger brother is facing his - unless you have been through your own, it is hard to imagine the havoc that chemotherapy, radiation, and medications wreak on your body, not to mention your spirit when you are feeling sick and definitely not looking like anything familiar to your pre-cancer self - As a grown-up, there are certain expectations of how I should be weathering my cancer journey - after all, I have lived a life, even if I am not ready to say good-bye, but a child - that is an entirely different story; one in which they are just beginning their life’s journey, only to be shortchanged or at best, sidetracked for a period-of-time where we bear witness to their suffering through various cancer treatments - it doesn’t get much worse…

Isabella Joanne Santos had a rare form of cancer, neuroblastoma, at age 2. She endured chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, antibodies, numerous ups & downs, meaning multiple relapses for 5 years until she passed away at age 7; while many of us were reading our children bedtime stories…Isabella and her family were waging a war. What was so spectacular about Isabella was that she was truly a rare gift to her family and to those who were lucky enough to meet her; the word rare in this context means an unusual, talented, gifted, special little girl, and yet, in the cancer world, rare means 700 children are affected each year. It means children, usually under the age of 5, are diagnosed with a form of cancer.  It means scary statistics about survival rates and relapses. In the case of the latter instance, rare is not one of the words you ever want to hear.

Established in 2007, The Isabella Santos Foundation (ISF) is dedicated to eradicating pediatric cancer’s devastating impact while honoring the legacy of Isabella Santos, her courageous fight against neuroblastoma. Collaborating with medical institutions, ISF drives innovative research to pioneer new treatments and enhance young cancer patients’ lives. Over-the-course of seventeen years, ISF has provided over $7 million in funding toward expanding the scope of research and treatment and supporting families dealing with cancer in a variety of ways.

It was Isabella’s dream to Beat Cancer, Grow Hair, and Live Her Dreams. Although research and advanced treatments didn’t come in time for her dreams to come true, Isabella’s legacy will give other kids a fighting chance against rare childhood cancers.

Like so many smaller, gutsy organizations, they iterated in a positive direction to meet the unmet needs of their constituencies - in this case, all childhood cancers

Check out their website: www.isabellasantosfoundation.org