One of five St. Baldrick's Foundation 2015 Ambassadors
Read more of Chase's story on our blog.
Chase loves baseball. So when he was diagnosed with an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor at just two years old, his parents used terms from his favorite sport to explain something no child should need to know – cancer.
The cancer was a baseball growing in his head, they told him, and the doctors were going to take it out. Now the little boy refers to his head as a baseball, both for the stitches that stretched across his scalp and for his cancer.
“Chase is incredibly resilient,” his mom says.
He has lingering effects from the treatment, including some permanent hearing and hair loss as well as some physical and mental challenges. Chase is also watched carefully, since the chemo he endured is known for causing heart damage.
He has been through brain surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Despite a recent clean bill of health, Chase’s cancer journey is not over. His latest MRI showed small growths in and around the tumor site, which his doctors are closely monitoring.
Like his favorite colors blue or red what he wants to be when he grows up changes by the day. Most recently he told his mom that he wanted to grow big and strong, like a tree.
His whole family is passionate about St. Baldrick’s mission and has become involved because his cancer is so directly impacted by the need for research and by the foundation’s efforts. Chase’s neuro-oncologist was a St. Baldrick’s scholar and the study Chase participated in was funded by a St. Baldrick’s grant.
“There are no adequate words for the researchers. They are warriors and visionaries; the poets of science who see what could be and never stop fighting to make it a reality,” Chase’s mother said. “Our children wouldn’t be alive without their work.”
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Chase Ewoldt, age 4, was diagnosed with Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor (more commonly referred to as "AT/RT" or ATRT) brain cancer on July 31, 2012. He went through a large and successful brain surgery on August 2nd, and started a very aggressive chemo protocol later in the same month. After completing proton radiation (12/12/2012), his MRIs showed that the tumor has been cleared from the brain and spine (1/17/2013). We rejoice, but know there is still a long road ahead...won't you join us?
Follow us on this page, on Facebook ("Chase Away Cancer") or stop by our family blog (http://efamily.brevis.me/) to learn more about this childhood cancer journey from the beginning.
Thank you for supporting Chase and the more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure.