When people ask why this fundraiser matters so much to me, the answer begins with one little boy.

Grier was the baby of our family. He had the sweetest smile, the deepest dimples and a laugh that could light up any room. He had a way of making people smile, even on the hardest days. He adored his older brother and sister and spent his entire life trying to keep up with them. Whatever they were doing, Grier wanted to do too. He wanted to run where they ran, laugh where they laughed and experience everything childhood had to offer. He wasn’t defined by cancer. He was a little boy who loved his family, loved to laugh and deserved the chance to grow up.

Instead, cancer became part of his story before he was even old enough to understand what was happening.

As toddlers should be discovering the world around them, Grier was learning the sights and sounds of hospitals. His childhood became filled with chemotherapy, surgeries, scans, blood draws, hospital stays and procedures that no child should ever have to endure. While other children celebrated milestones, we celebrated stable scans, blood count recoveries and one more day at home together.

No parent ever imagines that this will be their life.

No one plans to lose their child to cancer.

It certainly wasn’t our plan.

When your child is diagnosed with cancer, your entire world changes in an instant. Every dream you had for their future suddenly becomes uncertain. Instead of planning birthday parties, vacations and school events, you begin learning medical terminology you never wanted to know. You memorize lab values, chemotherapy schedules and scan dates. You become an expert in survival because your child’s life depends on it.

You also learn statistics you desperately wish weren’t true.

From the very beginning, we knew the odds were not in our favor. We understood the reality of Grier’s diagnosis, but as parents, statistics don’t change how fiercely you fight for your child. Hope doesn’t disappear because the numbers are against you. If anything, it becomes stronger.

You fight anyway.

You search for every possible treatment, wherever that may take you.

You ask every question.

You travel wherever you need to go.

You enroll your child in clinical trials because even the smallest possibility of helping them is worth everything.

Grier participated in clinical trials that continue to shape childhood cancer research today. Those trials represented hope — not only for him but for every child who would come after him. While they could not change the outcome we prayed for, they helped move research forward for families we will never meet.

That is part of Grier’s legacy.

I am also a cancer survivor. I know what it feels like to hear the word “cancer.” I know the fear, the uncertainty and the physical and emotional toll it takes. But my battle was never as difficult as watching my child fight for his life. There is no comparison. As hard as my own journey was, nothing prepares you for watching your child endure pain that you cannot take away.

Parents are supposed to protect their children.

Childhood cancer teaches you there are some things you cannot protect them from.

That feeling never leaves you.

What many people don’t see is the reality behind childhood cancer. We celebrate survivors — and we absolutely should — but we rarely talk about what families endure to get there. We don’t talk enough about the outdated, aggressive and incredibly toxic treatments that many children still receive today. Many therapies used to treat childhood cancers were developed decades ago. While they save lives, they often come with lifelong consequences affecting the heart, lungs, hearing, fertility, learning, growth and so much more.

For many children, surviving cancer is only the beginning of another lifelong medical journey.

Children deserve better.

Families deserve better.

We also don’t often talk about the financial and emotional toll. Childhood cancer impacts every part of a family’s life. Careers are interrupted. Savings disappear. Siblings sacrifice time with parents. Families spend months or years living between home and the hospital. And then there is the trauma — the kind that cannot be measured on a balance sheet.

Watching your child suffer through treatments that make them desperately sick while knowing those treatments are also their best chance to survive changes you forever. It is not a reality people like to hear. It isn’t an easy story to tell at fundraising events because it isn’t uplifting.

But it is the truth.

And the truth is why this work matters.

Childhood cancer remains the No. 1 disease-related cause of death for children in the United States. Yet despite that heartbreaking reality, childhood cancer research remains dramatically underfunded. Much of the progress that has been made has been driven not by large pharmaceutical investments but by determined researchers, passionate advocates, generous donors and nonprofit organizations refusing to accept the status quo.

Parents would do absolutely anything to save their children.

The heartbreaking reality is that love alone cannot create new treatments.

Research can.

Research requires funding.

Without investment, breakthroughs happen more slowly. Clinical trials become harder to launch. Promising discoveries take longer to reach children who desperately need them. Families continue facing treatment options that have changed far too little over the decades.

That is why fundraising matters.

Every dollar represents possibility.

Every donation says that children deserve better than outdated therapies and impossible odds.

Every act of generosity tells families currently sitting in hospital rooms that they are not fighting alone.

When Grier died at just 9 years old, our family lost a son, a little brother, a grandson, a cousin and a friend. We lost birthdays we will never celebrate, milestones we will never witness and dreams that will never unfold the way we imagined.

But cancer did not take away the impact of his life.

His life mattered.

Not because of how long he lived, but because of how deeply he loved, how courageously he fought and how profoundly he continues to inspire others.

Every child deserves the opportunity to laugh with their siblings, chase their dreams, make memories and grow into adulthood. Every child deserves treatments designed specifically for them — not treatments borrowed from adults and adjusted because better options don’t yet exist.

I cannot change what happened to my son.

If I could, I would do it in a heartbeat.

What I can do is make sure his story continues to change the future for other children.

This fundraiser is not only about remembering Grier. It is about honoring the remarkable little boy with the unforgettable dimples who taught us more about courage than we ever thought possible. It is about carrying forward the hope he gave us through every clinical trial, every smile and every day he chose joy despite unimaginable challenges.

It is about putting children first.

Because they are our future.

They depend on us to advocate for them, invest in them and refuse to accept a world where childhood cancer remains underfunded and underprioritized.

Grier’s life was far too short, but it was extraordinarily meaningful. His legacy is not measured by the years he lived but by the lives he continues to touch. If sharing his story inspires one more person to give, one more researcher to pursue a breakthrough or one more family to find hope, then his light continues to shine.

That is why this fundraiser matters.

It is for Grier.

It is for every child fighting today.

And it is for the day when no family has to hear the words, “Your child has cancer,” or experience the unimaginable pain of saying goodbye far too soon.

Please help us carry Grier’s legacy forward. Together, we can give children facing cancer a future filled with more birthdays, fewer toxic treatments and the chance to simply be kids.