On July 17, 2017, my wife and I stood in the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center and tried to absorb the news that our son, Storm had cancer. Very High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The next year was a nightmare of indescribable proportions, a surreal walk through hell that any parent who has been in our place knows all too well. Leukemia is difficult to treat because of its skill in hiding out of sight and then returning with renewed vigor. So the treatment is a sustained suppression on the child’s body, bone marrow, blood, immune system in hopes of eventually choking out the disease. For boys, that means over three years of constant chemotherapy. Storm nearly died from complications of the treatment several times.

As we endured the horror of this journey and we learned that pediatric cancer is on the rise in the U.S., we wondered who was working to stem the tide. To our amazement, the answer was, practically no one. We found an endless sea of charitable organizations dedicated to supporting those who had cancer, but none who were trying to reduce the number of children who would get cancer in the coming months and years and generations.

We formed the StormStrong Foundation as a way to pay forward the thousands of acts of kindness that were extended to us in our journey. Our primary inspiration was our son, Storm, who endured the indignities, the suffering, the terror, and the countless things that were taken from him and his childhood by cancer, and endured them with such grace, dignity, and strength that he inspired his entire community and beyond.