It was three days before Christmas, 2006, while in the midst of busy holiday preparations for her family, my daughter, Joyce Stankiewicz, decided she could no longer cope with an unrelenting headache and went to see her doctor. The next day she would hear the devastating news that she had a malignant brain tumor for which there was no cure.
On Christmas Eve, while other families were wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings, Joyce underwent surgery to remove the brain tumor. Over the next 26 months, this Old Orchard resident and Cooper School mom with kids in kindergarten, first, and second grades would participate in clinical trials hoping for more time to raise her family. Sadly, she passed away, but not before she found the grace and strength to walk in the Race for Hope Philadelphia in November 2008, just weeks before her death. She wished that no one else should face this tragic diagnosis without hope.
Every year since then, on the first Sunday in November, I have led a team of family and friends to walk in the National Brain Tumor Society’s annual Race for Hope — Philadelphia. For seven years, in memory of Joyce, we have set off from the Philadelphia Art Museum with hundreds of other runners and walkers of every age raising funds to extinguish this terrible disease. My devoted team, Stanky’s Strollers, has raised more than $20,000 to find a cure and improve the quality of life for those affected by brain tumors. While we’ve recently learned on “60 Minutes” that NBTS-funded research at Duke University is seeing good results in clinical trials using the polio virus, we are a long way from finding a cure. The death of Lauren Hill (a 19-year-old college basketball player) is a painful reminder that we must press on to fund research for brain cancer.
Sandra Weaver
