Shortly after Tanya Thomas returned from our first Wilms Tumor Symposium she was on the road again in pursuit of a cure for her daughter Hannah. Hannah relapsed to both lungs, and she and her mother were traveling to Chicago to begin the stem cell harvest process for an eventual transplant.

As the plane made its descent, Tanya struck up a conversation with the young man sitting next to her. Tanya’s seatmate, Ryan Tillery, was returning home to Chicago after a weekend of pheasant hunting. When Ryan asked why the Thomas’s were visiting Chicago, Tanya shared Hannah’s story of a Wilms Tumor diagnosis, her recent relapse, and soon-to-be stem cell harvest.

A few weeks later, Ryan contacted Tanya out of the blue and said he and his friends wanted to throw a fundraiser in Hannah’s honor to the foundation of her choice. Fresh from the opportunity to meet the world’s most renowned Wilms Tumor experts at our symposium, Tanya chose The Pablove Foundation. They set a goal to raise $10,000 for Pablove with the deal that six men would shave their hair into a Mohawk if they reached their mark. The friends spread news of their campaign via email and Facebook to everyone they could. By the Christmas holiday the six co-workers had raised over $20,000 for Pablove and had fresh new haircuts to prove it!

From our Get Involved page