CRF is jumping into March with a fresh sense of excitement. The March 2022 newsletter is here!

The Cristian Rivera Foundation is jumping into March with a fresh sense of excitement as the days grow longer and spring approaches! With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, March is our month of luck, and this month the Cristian Rivera Foundation needs all the luck we can get in order to achieve our goal of ending DIPG. However, we know that luck alone is not enough to end DIPG. For that reason, here at CRF we work very hard to give ourselves the best odds possible at beating this horrible disease. We increase our odds by fundraising for DIPG research, as well as funding the participation of DIPG warriors in clinical trials. In this month’s newsletter, we’ll be showcasing all the ways you can help us beat the odds and cure DIPG.

This month, we would like to take a moment to honor the life and spirit of Emily Hood. Emily was one of our strongest warriors, and loved life more than anything. She fought DIPG with so much positivity and grace, and her fighting spirit is incredibly inspirational. Emily loved being active, playing sports and board games, and enjoyed watching movies and tv shows. More than anything, she loved her family and spent as much time with them as she could. Faith was very important to her, and she dreamed of becoming a pastor one day. We hope that you will take a little time to think of Emily this month. We miss you Emily.

Congratulations are in order for Rena Kliot on becoming an Executive Board Member! Rena has been on the board for more than two years, but in that short amount of time she has a huge impact. When asked about her new position, Rena said, “I am truly honored to be appointed to the Executive Board of the Cristian Rivera Foundation. It’s John’s passion and relentless pursuit to bring awareness and to find a cure for DIPG, as well as the organic nature of the current board, that draws me in closer and closer to the cause. We operate as a family CRF and I am so proud to be a part of this foundation. These beautiful children need a voice to advocate for them today because they are the voices of tomorrow. Every beautiful, innocent child deserves the right and chance to live a life free of struggle and worry. My passion, along with my fellow board members, is to allow them that opportunity to shine like the stars that they are.” Congratulations Rena! We are so lucky to have you!

Despite the numerous difficulties in treating DIPG, doctors and researchers, with the help of patients and their families, continue to work hard to develop new and more effective treatments for children with DIPG. There are many different DIPG treatments currently being studied by medical teams around the world. Repeat radiation therapy, therapeutic vaccines, and direct drug delivery to the tumor are all promising strategies being tested in clinical trials right now. Dr. Mark Souweidane of Weill Cornell Medicine Pediatric Brain and Spine Center is currently conducting a clinical trial which studies a new approach that delivers radio-immunotherapeutic cancer-fighting drugs directly to the tumor site. This treatment has shown promising results in clinical trials, and we at the Cristian Rivera Foundation hope that by funding Dr. Souweidane’s research, we will be one step closer to finding a cure for DIPG.

The Cristian Rivera Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) Non-Profit Organization that works tirelessly in order to raise awareness and funds to one day put a STOP to this disease. The Cristian Rivera Foundation funds the work of Dr. Mark Souweidane of Weill Cornell Medical Center – Memorial Sloane (Kettering) Cancer Center and Dr. Oren Becher of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital. Both doctors are conducting promising research and trials that have shown encouraging results. We are close to a cure, but we need your help!

The mission of the Cristian Rivera Foundation is to help find the cure for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), an inoperable brain stem tumor, and to raise awareness and provide assistance to families affected by DIPG in order to build a world in which it no longer exists.

Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma or DIPG, is a rare, inoperable brain stem tumor that predominantly affects children between the ages of 2 and 10. Only 200-300 cases are discovered in the United States each year and because there is no cure, it’s young victims only have an average of 3-18 months to live, after they’ve been diagnosed. There are no survivors, but the researchers we support are hard at work finding a cure.

Sincerely,
Cristian Rivera Foundation