Thon: Gage and Brody

While the event itself is fun and exciting, the focus remains on the mission: helping to fight childhood cancer by providing both financial and emotional support for the patients and their families.  Each year TigerThon sponsors one child through UPMC Children’s Hospital. This year, TigerThon is lucky enough to have two sponsors: Gage and Brody.

Gage is only two years old and was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer: Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor(AT/RT) in August of 2018. His parents took him into the emergency room after Gage was extremely lethargic and unable to stay awake for more than two minutes. The following day, Gage underwent hours of brain surgery in hopes of removing the tumor, but the mass was too deep. After weeks of intense treatment, Gage went into remission for one year. Unfortunately, in November of 2019, Gage relapsed. The toddler went through six more weeks of daily radiation therapy, and did incredibly well. Gage recently hit the ceremonial gong in the UPMC Radiation Oncology Department symbolizing the treatment process finally coming to a close. In a video posted by UPMC Children’s Hospital, Gages dad, Jason emotionally expressed, “He’s tough. He’s so tough, he never cries.”  Gage will now continue to get MRI’s of his brain to monitor the cancer and will start a chemo-therapy regimen again. Despite the intense hardships Gage has endured in his mere two years of life, “he’s done it all with a smile on his face”, his mom Keli Peters says in the UPMC Children’s Hospital video.

North Allegheny stands behind Gage as he continues his journey with AT/RT.

Similar to Gage, Brody was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia(ALL) in 2011 at two and a half years old. The toddler had what seemed like a typical cold, but it progressed worse and worse with each passing week. After a month, doctors took blood work which confirmed the leukemia. Brody endured intense treatment for years. Now, in fifth grade, Brody has been in remission for five years. He is getting ready to enter middle school and goes through life happy and thankfully, healthy.

As Carli Leonard says, “TigerThon is so important because the money we raise really is going to a great place. Both Children’s Hospital and Pennies from Heaven have impacted so many kids. Children with pediatric cancer go through things that no person, let alone a kid, should have to experience so it’s awesome we get this experience to help them in any way we can.”