ChadTough’s Research Workshop and Gala
Mark and Deb (Emily’s parents and founders of ELF) were honored to attend ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation's 2025 Research Workshop and Gala where over $1.8 million dollars was raised for research. Thanks to your generous donations, Emily's Light Foundation has become a Research Collaborator with ChadTough allowing us to help support the funding of research grants. Thank you!!
Here are the highlights!
Materials from the weekend. Peep the Emily's Light logo.
Friday night, Research Collaborators like our foundation and Family Partners were invited to attend the Dinner Reception and Poster Session. It was an honor to be there and interact with those on the front lines working towards treatment and cure!
Just a small sample of the research titles from the poster presentations Friday night.
Keynote Speaker - Susanne J. Baker, PhD is the Associate Director for Basic Research and Co-leader of the Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program at the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Baker was the first to identify TP53 mutations in human cancer. Focusing on pediatric gliomas, she co-discovered the first histone mutations (like Em's H3K27M mutation) in human cancer.
Precious humans working tirelessly to find a cure for this worst of all brain cancers.
Mark and I were there representing Emily's Light Foundation, having no idea they would also be including our sweet Em on the board of DIPG/DMG kids and young adults now in heaven. I shed many, many tears before we took this photo.
Our entry into the gala. On the floor of University of Michigan basketball arena. Overwhelming.
Tammi Carr, co-founder of the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation speaking. The videos they showed of the origins of the foundation, while incredibly painful to watch, were so well-done. The whole evening was a necessary balance of the seriousness of the need to raise funds to defeat this cancer, along with much needed social time to meet other families and supporters.
Fortunate to spend some time with these 2 incredible people from Chimerix, the drug manufacturer of ONC201. one of the few drugs that has shown some promise towards slowing the growth of these tumors.
