$2,000,000 in Hot Tub Research
Childhood Cancer have you stressed? The NIH has your back! They’ve invested $2,004,704 to see if sitting in a hot tub will reduce stress. Sweet relief! We’re rolling our eyes past the point of no return.
Meanwhile, at Little Warrior Foundation, we are feverishly writing grants, selling sweatshirts, hosting bake sales, and planning events to find and fund a cure for Ewing Sarcoma.
The top researchers in the country are turning to our nonprofit to help fund their research and launch their clinical trials. Our medical advisory team pours over the details, actively debating their merits, risk and potential. And we have to make tough decisions and say “No” or “Not Now” to many researchers.
The project we are fundraising for currently is still in development — a personalized mRNA vaccine for Ewings Sarcoma at the Cleveland Clinic. When (fingers-crossed) this project gets the official green light from all the partners involved, we’re expecting to contribute $1,000,000 to support it.
That’s a lot of sweatshirts and brownies.
But as we’ve discussed, foundations like Little Warrior have to step up and fill the void in research funding left by Uncle Sam and Big Pharma. So we roll up our sleeves and get to work.
But we won’t bite our tongue. The US Government has the money, but it’s being squandered.
For example, the National Institute of Health (the organization that runs the National Cancer Institute), “invested” $2,004,704 to see if spending time in a hot tub three times a week for ten weeks relieves stress.
Want to know what would relieve our stress?
Knowing that relapsed Ewings patients have reliable and effective treatment options.
Not worrying about the cardiac toxicity from pumping kids full of doxorubicin. (There is an alternative… but it’s not getting much funding because money is tied up in — checks notes — Jacuzzi Science.)
Being able to brush off a fever and not wondering if it’s acute myeloid leukemia, a common secondary cancer caused by chemotherapy.
Having a reliable blood test (cTDNA) for surveillance so we don’t have to wait until recurrences are big enough to see on scans. (Another project we’d like to fund.)
No amount of hot tub time can ease that stress. Trust us, we’ve tried. The only hot-tub related research that we want to hear about is a literal Hot Tub Time Machine. We’d use it to go back and catch all the childhood cancer diagnoses earlier. And then find whoever approved spending $2M on Hot Tub Stress Relief Research and kick them in the shin.
There are great organizations out there that are lobbying for more funds to be appropriated for Childhood Cancer research. But the fact is, we can’t wait. Because Ewing Sarcoma doesn’t wait. It’s relentless, so we’re relentless.
We’re so grateful to our supporters for backing us so we can fund promising research. Having a community behind this mission provides strength and hope to warriors everywhere. And we wouldn’t trade that for all the hot tubs in the world.
If you want to contribute to the cause, please donate and/or help spread the word!