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Benefit Focuses On Kids' Cancers

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 22, 2007

Updated: 09/20/2007 04:55 pm

VALRICO - Three-year-old Peyton Mayhew is no aficionado of fine art.

She quickly became bored with coloring the outlines of the sun with a paintbrush and switched to a sponge. Soon the tiles she was creating to present as awards for the first Cure Kids Cancer Challenge were simply a colorful collage of pinks and purples, her favorite colors.

'Don't you want the sun to show?' Lisa Orlando of the Pediatric Cancer Foundation asked the Brandon girl.

The sun on the tiles represents The Sunshine Project, a collaborative research program intended to fast-track the development of drugs to cure childhood cancers.

Peyton vigorously shook her head.

'Well,' Orlando said, 'they'll be beautiful anyway.'

Peyton might not know a lot about art but, since being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia July 13, 2006, she has become an expert at IV needles, hair loss, nausea and all the other unpleasant aspects of radiation and chemotherapy.

It's for her and other Brandon area children that Sherry Tucker, Holly Wirth and other mothers whose children have died of pediatric cancer joined to organize the Cure Kids Cancer Challenge.

Set for this month, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, the first-of-its-kind event to benefit the Pediatric Cancer Foundation in Tampa will take place Sept. 29 at Park Square in FishHawk Ranch. Runners and walkers can choose between a 5K and a 1-mile course. The entry fee is $25 per person or $100 for teams of six. Registration opens at 8 a.m., and the challenge begins at 9 a.m.

'This is a grass-roots effort we hope will bring out the entire community,' Tucker said. 'We'll have a number of activities going on, and we encourage everyone to come out.'

Mimi's restaurant, Chick-fil-A, Westshore Pizza, Buffalo Wild Wings and other restaurants will provide food. There also will be a bouncy castle, face painters, popcorn and a silent auction.

'It will be a big community event,' Tucker said. 'What's so special is this will be the first walk in the area especially for pediatric cancer.'

For Tucker and Wirth, raising money to find a cure for pediatric cancer is personal. Wirth's daughter Paige died three years ago at 19 months. Tucker's son Zachary died last year at age 8. Both had brain tumors.

'This community in particular has been affected by childhood cancer,' said Tucker, noting that 11 out of the 26 families that are members of the Pediatric Cancer Foundation are from the Brandon area. 'But it's brought everyone together - those who have lost, and those who are battling.'

OnMonday evening, eight families affected by pediatric cancer gathered at the Pottery Patch in Valrico at the invitation of owner Wendy Pettys to paint 40 tiles, which Pettys will donate to the Cure Kids Cancer Challenge to be presented to sponsors, winners and top fundraisers.

'I thought it was more personal than your usual awards and a great way to give back to the community,' she said.

Wirth said she has been overwhelmed by the response to the fundraiser.

'It's been phenomenal,' she said. 'We already have nearly 200 people registered, and the community has been so responsive. It's really inspiring. We're hoping it will grow and spread all over Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.'

Tampa mothers Melissa Helms and Risa Tramel founded the nonprofit Pediatric Cancer Foundation in 1991 while their infant daughters were undergoing treatment for cancer at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa. Through research, both daughters survived and are healthy teens. However, the two mothers became aware that 2,300 children in the United States never reach adulthood because so little funding goes into finding a cure for pediatric cancer.

Since its formation, the foundation has funded millions of dollars in grants to institutions including All Children's Research Institute, St. Joseph's, the University of Florida in Gainesville, the University of Miami School of Medicine and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.

However, Wirth and Tucker are most passionate about the foundation's latest project, The Sunshine Project, because it brings the country's foremost researchers together to fast-track new treatments. Instead of waiting the typical 20 years for a new drug to reach the market, the women are hoping the collaborative research will yield a new therapy in a few years.

'The researchers we've been working with have been so excited about this fundraiser,' Orlando said. 'They can't find funding like this so it's great to receive community support. And we couldn't do this without these amazing families and amazing children. It's a tribute to the children that we've lost and to those who are still battling.'

For information, visit www.fastercure.org or call (813) 269-0955.

Reporter/columnist D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite @tampatrib.com.

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