by Allison Keyes, WTOP.com
BETHESDA, Md. — A small, but vocal group of families gathered in Bethesda on Saturday, hoping to send a message about the need for more federal funding for pediatric cancer research.
“Four percent is not enough,” they chanted as they walked back and forth in front of the Medical Center Metro stop across the street from the National Institutes of Health.
The demonstrators want the government to devote a higher percentage of funding to children’s cancer. Annie Swink, of North Carolina, was carrying her two-year-old daughter and two signs.
“[The] funding isn’t enough for kids when their bodies can’t handle adult treatments,” Swink says. Her stepson, Bayden, died a year ago. She says he was suffering from T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, and died despite being in remission from a fungal infection there is no treatment for
“Little bodies get destroyed,” Swink says.
Tasha Green came with three of her four daughters to support her six-year-old Ariana, who’s been battling brain cancer for two years.
“She’s since been through two brain surgeries,” Green says, “very harsh radiations to her entire brain and spine and four rounds of really high dose chemotherapy.”
Green says the grace of God, support of others, and strength of her daughter and her other kids give her true strength. One of Green’s 12-year old twins, Iman Coleman, tries hard to keep Ariana happy.
“We try to cheer her up so she’s not sad,” Coleman says. “She loves to play dance games.”
Chris Giordano’s 13-year-old son Mathias died in December.
“I just want more funding for the kids,” Giordano says. “They deserve it more. They need to be able to live their lives, to be adults. I wanted my son to live and have kids, have life experiences other than three years of being in a hospital non-stop.”
The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health could not be reached for comment.
