The Children's Foundation funds research that is guiding the treatment of children like Claire, who was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor at 5 months old. But there is a $30 million gap in such funding annually.
“One day everything was fine and the next we had a child fighting cancer,” says Craig Salyers about his toddler Claire’s recent cancer diagnosis. Like any new parents, when Craig and his wife, Cristina Cibrario, found out they were pregnant with twins in December 2019, they anticipated the stress of sleepless nights and hungry babies. That was shadowed by raising infants during a pandemic, and then intensified when their daughter was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor at only 5 months old.
“We noticed something strange about Claire’s left eye since birth, and it progressively got worse to the point it was kind of bulging out of her head,” Cristina says.
It was a casual stay-at-home weekend in April 2020 when the couple texted a photo of Claire to their pediatrician, who advised they immediately go to Emergency at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. With Craig unable to accompany his wife, he waited by the phone for play-by-play updates, cuddling Claire’s twin brother, Graham.
It was a long day of worry with specialists testing and analyzing Claire, ultimately leading to news no parent ever wants to hear.
“She got an MRI that showed a brain tumor along her vision tract called an optic pathway glioma, or a tumor on her optic nerve,” explains Claire’s oncologist, Dr. Stephanie Toll. “Because of her age, we performed a biopsy to confirm the tumor and gather genetic information on it.”
Genetic information helps doctors better understand the cancer so they can determine a personalized cancer therapy approach to target the tumor. By collecting this information, researchers hope to improve response rates to cancer treatment. Such research has helped guide Claire’s treatment, which includes a regimen of chemotherapy for 18 months, which she has half completed.
This critical research is funded by The Children's Foundation, which supports the collaborative work at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Hurley Hospital of Flint, and Wayne State University. The Foundation’s support has been essential to making progress in this area, as there is an estimated gap of $30 million annually in childhood cancer funding in the United States.
For the past year, Claire has seen the walls of a hospital almost as much as those in her home. It has been a long journey of tests, tubes, and prayers, but Claire’s prognosis is optimistic.
“Claire is the toughest human I’ve ever met,” Craig says. “She plays during chemo, doesn’t flinch when she’s poked, and has handled everything super well. We were concerned she might have developmental delays due to the tumor, but she is right in line with her brother and even outpacing him in some instances.”
When finding out their child has a cancerous tumor, Craig and Cristina immediately went to a dark place of fear—the unknowns were insurmountable. But because of the research progress made with funding support from The Children's Foundation, their outlook has changed significantly.
“Claire’s diagnosis has taught us to not take anything for granted,” Cristina says. “We are very thankful for those who have donated to support this research.”
You can help support the pediatric cancer research of the future when you include The Children's Foundation in your will or other estate plan. Contact George Westerman at (313) 745-9344 or GWesterman@YourChildrensFoundation.org to discuss your options.