Wednesday, January 4, 2012 marked two years since DIPG took the life of an amazing young boy named Javier “Buji” Villamil. During his short life, Buji was a great athlete who loved sports, George Lopez, iCarly and Scooby Snacks fruit snacks. He earned his wings a few months shy of his 12th birthday and will […]
Today Dr. Souweidane let me know that his DIPG clinical trial has finally gotten approval from the FDA. I was so happy to hear this. We’d been waiting so long for this final approval and now Dr. Souweidane and his team can start preparing for the trial. By the last week of January, he expects to operate on his first patient.
Researchers at Stanford University and the University of California at San Francisco receive prestigious awards to examine childhood cancers Wynnewood, PA (December 2011) – Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF) today announced the recipients of the ‘A’ Award, a groundbreaking pediatric cancer research grant designed to jumpstart the careers of promising scientists in […]
The holidays are a very difficult time of year for me because Cristian isn’t here to celebrate them. It’s hard to believe sometimes that he’s really gone. This week I received an email from DIPG parents who is going through their first holiday season without their son.
“It’s been almost two years since Sam was diagnosed in December 2006. The only improvement that I’ve seen during this time is that we have this wonderful site!” [the DIPG Internet Yahoo support list and discussion group] So said “Sheila” (in December 2008), whose young grandson had died in February 2008 from a diffuse intrinsic pontine […]
We at the Cristian Rivera Foundation extend the warmest of holiday greetings to our friends, family and supporters. Thank you for the generosity and care you’ve shown throughout the year, whether it be through making donations, attending our events, or even just wearing our wristband every day and educating your loved ones about our […]
Dr. Michael Prados of the University of California, San Francisco talks about advances in brain stem glioma research.
A group of paintballers came together in Queens on Saturday with a mission to remember a little boy who lost his life to a rare illness. Cristian Rivera died in 2009 from pontine glioma, a brain stem tumor which strikes up to 300 children per year in North America and has no cure. The […]
Gloria Garcia Castellvi, a friend of Juan Manuel who lost her little girl Alicia to DIPG, came all the way from Spain to see me on Tuesday, December 6. Gloria is very involved in the DIPG community in Spain and hosts a DIPG symposium there every February.