Childhood cancer awareness is not a ribbon, a slogan, or a month on the calendar. For my family, it is our reality. It is my son Cole’s story. It is the lens through which I now see the world.

For us, awareness means honoring the life of our son, who fought some of the rarest and most unforgiving battles a child could face. At just 3 years old, Cole was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma. He endured years of grueling treatments and, against all odds, survived. For 15 precious years, we believed he had outrun cancer. But at 18, it returned in a crueler form: metastatic pancreatoblastoma, and later an additional cancer — non-differentiated endocrine sarcoma invading his brain and spine.

Cole was the only documented case of a 15-year survivor developing these cancers. His journey confounded even the most brilliant medical minds. Treated at three world-renowned institutions in Philadelphia and New York, his doctors had no research to guide them. No roadmap existed for the genetic predisposition we later discovered he carried, one that I and other family members now live with as well.

And yet, through it all, Cole never stopped fighting. His courage was breathtaking, his resilience unmatched. He lived with humor, heart, and determination, shining his light even as cancer tried to extinguish it. Though he was robbed of a future he so richly deserved, he continued to give the world his joy, his love, and his example.

Today, my husband and I are empty nesters, but not in the way we ever imagined. The silence in our home is deafening. It is a daily reminder of all that cancer has stolen, the dreams left unrealized, the milestones never reached, the research that should have been there to light his path. That is why childhood cancer awareness is not optional. It is essential. Awareness fuels research. Research drives treatments. Treatments give families hope. Awareness is the first spark in the chain that leads to survival. Organizations like Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation are helping carry that spark forward by championing breakthrough cancer research, the very kind of research that could have given Cole and children like him a different outcome.

Cole’s journey embodies both the heartbreak and the urgency of this fight. He was extraordinary in life, and his story remains extraordinary in loss. Though he is no longer here, he continues to be our call to action. Childhood cancer awareness means carrying forward the promise of what could and should be. It means ensuring no other family faces the same uncharted, devastating terrain we did. It means creating a world where children like Cole are not defined by their diagnoses, but free to live out the beautiful futures they deserve.

And so, we fight on in Cole’s honor, and for every child and every family still carrying genetic legacies they did not choose but must endure. Because awareness is more than memory, it is momentum. And it is the only way we will change the story for the children who come next.
 
About Keren
Keren Fitzgerald is a proud ambassador for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, but her greatest role is being mom to Maggie, Maeve, and Cole, and wife to Bill.

The Fitzgerald family, lovingly known as the “Fightin’ Fitzgeralds,” has been in the childhood cancer fight since Cole was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at just 3 years old. At 18, Cole faced a second cancer diagnosis, which uncovered an even deeper truth: he carried a rare cancer predisposition syndrome called Li-Fraumeni.

Cole passed away at the age of 19 because there was no cure available to him, but his fight did not end there. Keren and her family continue his mission through the Fightin’ Fitzgeralds’ Fund to Cure Rare Cancer with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation so that one day, cures exist for every child facing cancer.

About Childhood Cancer
In 2024, an estimated 15,000 children were diagnosed with cancer in the United States. While cancer names and types like leukemia or lymphoma may share a name with adult cancers, childhood cancers are different and often require different treatments. The average age at diagnosis for a child with cancer is 10 years old (for an adult it is 66 years old). Children who have had treatment and survive childhood cancer are 95% more likely than their peers without a past cancer diagnosis to experience a significant health side effect by the time they are 45 years old. Learn more about childhood cancer and the work Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is doing to make a difference here.