Last week, the world lost an amazing and courageous person: my friend Vivian Rivera. Vivian was a breast cancer survivor but a brain tumor took her from us too soon on Friday January 7.

A few weeks ago, I met another little boy with Pontine Glioma. His name is Jordan Malave and he was first diagnosed with Pontine Glioma when he was only two and a half. I met Jordan with his dad Jayson, and spent an hour on the phone with his mom, Leeana Castro.

Last month, my good friend Vito Bruno produced a concert celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Freestyle at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. He had promised that a portion of the proceeds from the event would benefit the Cristian Rivera Foundation and this week, he handed me a $6,000 check.

Each day, we lose more and more children to Pontine Glioma. It’s a sad fact that’s only made harder now that Thanksgiving is coming, with the holiday season not far behind. I got to meet even more families whose children died of brain tumors at The Mikey Czech Foundation’s Third Annual Moms For Mikey event, Comedy for a Cure.

My son’s gala was last week. Now that it’s over, I can really look back on the hard work that went into it. We made such an improvement over last year’s gala and it’s thanks to the efforts of people like Annie Bonner and Belinda Aquine who helped organize it.