This week, Tampa Bay area families will head to our nation’s capital to rally for childhood cancer research to be a national priority.
“There’s nothing harder to a bereaved parent than to think somebody’s going to forget their child, so we make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Christen Gray.
Gray knows the grief of losing a child that never truly goes away. In 2018, her son was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma.
“My first experience with CureFest, I traveled when our son relapsed in 2019,” said Gray. “The year following, I was there as a bereaved parent. Our son passed away in 2020.”
Gray is one of the families going with the 1Voice Foundation, a Tampa non-profit, getting ready to travel to CureFest in Washington D.C. this week, where advocates and families will come together to raise awareness for pediatric cancer.
“Until every outcome is a favorable one, I think we have so much more work to do,” said Dena Sherwood.
Sherwood is the founder of Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation, which organizes CureFest.