Deany Strong

I come to tell you a story of a family who is very dear to our hearts. On Thursday March 16th dear friends  Ashley Bandavanis and her Husband Dean received devestating news that their 6 year old son Deany had been diagnosed with DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma) a very aggressive, rare and hard to treat brain tumor. It is located in the bottom part of the brain stem called the PONS. The PONS controls all of your involuntary motor functions like your heartbeat and your breathing. Because of this it is not operable. Nothing to date has been shown to successfully penetrate this area of the brain stem. The only form of treatment that we can do is radiation. This is not to get rid of the tumor this is just to slow it. Buying us more time per say. It will slow the aggression of the tumor for approx 4-6 months buying us time to go have fun. After that time the tumor will start growing again even more aggressive then first time, and it could/will take his life shortly there after. There is no cure for DIPG. This type only effects approx 300 children in the US. Deany has just finished his treatment  by the oncology team at Nationwide Children's hospital with Dr. Diana Osorio (neuro oncologist) leading the team. Now that the treatments have been completed what is next?  They are looking at a study in Mexico that is very expensive but has had some success stories to date.  We need to help raise money to send them there for this treatment.  Will you consider giving?  Every donation helps.  Deany is loved by his family including his older brother Keller who is 8 years old.