Childhood Cancer Deserves Year-Round Commitment to Funding and Research
Mothers channel loss into a $1.5 million commitment to fund childhood cancer research.
HOUSTON, Oct. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Five mothers who each lost a child to Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive pediatric cancer, have joined forces in a groundbreaking act of love and advocacy. Brought together by The Faris Foundation, they launched a $1.5 million research fund aimed at accelerating new treatment discoveries and advancing hope for families everywhere.
Their collaboration reflects a powerful truth: that families, bound by loss but driven by love, can lead the charge toward change. Despite the thousands of families impacted each year, pediatric cancer research continues to face significant funding gaps and struggles for visibility. In fact, only about 4% of federal cancer research funding is allocated to childhood cancers, despite cancer being the leading cause of disease-related death among children.
“That lack of investment is the reason progress has been so slow, and why one in five children diagnosed with cancer still do not survive” said Dr. Asha Virani, of the Faris Foundation. “We need to do better for our kids. Investing in childhood cancer research could unlock discoveries that transform not only pediatric care, but our understanding of adult cancers as well.”
United in grief and purpose, the mothers have fueled the creation of the Advancing Cures for Ewing Sarcoma (ACES) Award, administered in partnership with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. The inaugural recipient, Dr. Brian Ladle of Johns Hopkins University, is pioneering a next-generation immunotherapy designed to harness the body’s immune system to recognize and fight Ewing sarcoma cells, a potential breakthrough after decades of limited progress.
The ACES Award honors the legacies of Sam Day, Max Ritvo, Carley Rutledge, Noah Shohet, and Faris Virani. For their mothers, Dr. Asha J. Virani (The Faris Foundation), Dr. Riva Ariella Ritvo Slifka (Alan B. Slifka Foundation), Laura Rutledge (Rutledge Cancer Foundation), Lorna Day (Sam Day Foundation), and Dr. Felice Adler Shohet (Shohet Family Fund for Ewing Sarcoma Research), this initiative transforms grief into action, ensuring other families may one day be spared the same heartbreak.
“Childhood Cancer Awareness Month brings an important spotlight, but for families like ours, the reality is year-round,” said Dr. Virani. “We believe children deserve the same visibility and urgency that other cancer communities have achieved. Our message is simple: awareness cannot end in September, and research must not wait.”
Each year, nearly 90,000 adolescents and young adults are diagnosed with cancer, yet pediatric cancer research remains dramatically underfunded. The ACES Award is a blueprint for how parent-led philanthropy and community action can fill critical gaps, drive innovation, and change the future of treatment.
As September fades into October, these mothers call on the public to keep childhood cancer in focus. Awareness months raise critical visibility, but cures require persistence every day of the year.
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