Charity for the Community: Stanley’s Dream: Honoring a Brave Boy’s Spirit

By Kaitlin Irwin

     The dark shadow of cancer has affected all of our lives in some way. We usually hear about breast cancer, and skin cancer and there are fundraisers and widely-known organizations that help raise awareness of these types of diseases. Stanley’s DREAM is a Philadelphia-based charity focused on battling a form that we don’t often think about: childhood brain cancer.

          Stanley’s DREAM is named for Stanley Edwards, who at age 12 was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Efforts to surgically remove it resulted in paralysis of his right arm and leg, as well as learning disabilities. This left his aspirations for college, as well as his participation in class and school sports at a huge deficit. Stanley powered on until 2002 when at the age 14, his tumor returned. His family raises up Stanley’s undaunted spirit and love for education through Stanley’s DREAM, which awards scholarships to high school seniors as well as research grants to hospitals.

    

     By supporting hospital research into childhood brain cancer, Stanley’s DREAM is helping medical researchers and doctors better understand how brain tumors develop as well as new and advanced treatment options such as gene therapy and new drugs. For the past decade, the charity has been donating thousands of dollars each year to CHOP to financially assist their Neuro-Oncology research program. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recently unveiled a new treatment room at the Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care, named in Stanley’s honor.

     Moreover, Stanley’s DREAM awards two college scholarships each year to graduating seniors within the Chester County School District. Now his family hopes to help the aspirations of promising students come true through scholarships given in Stanley’s name. Stanley was a superb student himself and had dreams of enrolling at Notre Dame University. Even as his tumor decreased his cognitive abilities, Stanley held tight to his dream. He devoted himself to speech, physical, and occupational therapy and attended his entire 8th grade year in school. After a full school day, Stanley would make his way to CHOP for radiation treatments and chemotherapy. He learned to write left-handed after his right arm became paralyzed, and he continued to strive for success in his Individualized Education Program. When his brain tumor returned, Stanley agreed to a clinical trial that had never before been offered to a child. Rather than asking “Why me?” Stanley kept his sights on recovery.

     Stanley kept his faith, beginning the 9th grade and staying positive even as blindness set in, he was forced to use a wheelchair, and he received a 3-month prognosis. He powered on for another 8 months before passing away. Today his spirit continues to stand strong and touch the lives of many people. Given that brain cancer makes up 20% of all cancer diagnoses in children and 2,000 kids in the US develop brain tumors each year, this is a cause that needs much more attention. If you would like to donate to Stanley’s DREAM, visit them online at http://www.stanleysdream.org.

Read the article here: http://delcomag.com/Archive/JULY2017DCM/index.html?page=52