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Welcome to Childhood Cancer Talk Radio powered by Jack's Angels where we talk about real life experiences, advocacy news, developments in research, and today's heroes for kids!

For guest and promotional information, download our Prospective Guest Letter.

Our primary purpose is to provide a powerful voice of advocacy and activism for our children with cancer, and to encourage more conversation in the world at large about prioritizing investment into childhood cancers for which we currently lack effective treatments. Despite our very best of intentions as a society, pediatric cancers are largely neglected diseases relatively speaking, while cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in children in the United States. The current norms of investment for profit dominate the prioritization landscape and obscure humanitatian concerns and the suffering of smaller patient populations. Consideration for short-term investment gains tend to win-out over consideration for the potential long-term gains of creating new industry, research infrastructure and jobs that scientific breakthroughs, and in this case a cure, would typically bring. 

Our interviews focus on what actions are being taken currently, by parents, advocates and activists, and our representative voices in Government on the behalf of children to prioritize them in our system, and the real-time experiences of children, their parents and caregivers. Our workers in the science and tech world devoted to helping create a more responsive system are often invited to share their innovations with the greater public, for greater awareness and application. And of course, we invite our scientists on the front lines of research and clinical work to share new developments, collaborations, and hope.

We work for the day when no parent hears there's no solution for their child because, "the numbers aren't great enough for investors."

 

Our Nation's Best: A Kid Again, with Kathy Derr

Today's show features an interview with Kathy Derr, Co-Founder and Director of Family Engagement for A Kid Again, a national organization with a...

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Hope Over Despair: Mariah Olson, Neuroblastoma Survivor

Mariah Olson was diagnosed in 1980 with neuroblastoma at the age of one year, and is a living testament as a survivor to the difficulties that so...

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The Difference of a Decade: A Conversation with Childhood Cancer Advocate Jonathan Agin

This edition of Childhood Cancer Talk Radio gives a personal look at the landscape of childhood cancer advocacy over recent years. For this, I have...

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A Look Back, and Forward: Advocacy with Children's Cancer Cause 2021

Today's show is a recap of recent advances in childhood cancer advocacy and reiterates the basic facts about childhood cancer for which we strive to...

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Life Beyond DIPG: Inspiration and Avocation

In this edition of Childhood Cancer Talk Radio, members of the DIPG Advocacy Group Gerry Tye (Syndey, AUS), Katherine Bader (Rhineland, Missouri) and...

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About Janet


Blessed with varied interests and an artistic and musical upbringing, Janet had health challenges throughout her young adult life. Despite these she graduated Cum Laude from Wellesley College with an award of distinction for acting, and had also been a champion equestrian. She began a family with her husband Barry later in life, and had finally found happiness with daughter Sophie-Marie (3/12/06) and then baby (Jack 8/30/08). Five weeks after his birth, the family escaped a wildfire in which all worldly possessions were lost. The family relocated in December of 2008 to Agua Dulce CA where they currently reside.

Jack began to have unsettling symptoms at the age of 3; he was taken to Children's Hospital Los Angeles and was diagnosed with DIPG, or diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, on Friday Oct. 28, 2011, indisputably the darkest experience of Janet's life. The outrage of it made her determined to find the good in the situation, and she asked God to "Put me to work!" After Jack's death, she remained determined to start working to find solutions to DIPG and incorporated Jack's Angels at the end of 2012; the Foundation began its work in 2013. Despite the fact that DIPG is responsible for the majority of brain tumor deaths in children, she had been told there were no solutions for Jack because "the numbers aren't great enough for investors." This remains the primary motivation in her advocacy work, to prioritize children's lives in our medical system in the United States.