by KELLI FONTENOT
Published April 6 in The Heights Observer
The first CureSearch walk in Cleveland, planned for May 8 at Wade Oval from 9 to 11:30 a.m., will raise awareness and funding for childhood cancer research.
Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children, according to CureSearch. The organization, which works with the Children’s Oncology Group and National Childhood Cancer Foundation to fund research, will play a major role in the Northeast Ohio CureSearch Walk to Conquer Childhood Cancer, according to cochair Stephen Crowley.
Crowley and his wife, Cynthia Van Lenten, are organizing the walk. Posters advertising the event feature photographs of their daughter, Olivia, who was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in 2002. She was 7 years old. For the next three years, she underwent treatment, including chemotherapy in hospitals from Memphis to New York. Described by her father as a vibrant child who loved soccer and wanted to be a comedian, she died in 2005.
"She was full of life, and it made it really hard to see that something like this could happen to somebody like that," Crowley said. "My wife and I did everything we could to try to save her. We spent a lot of energy and resources trying to find a cure for her, so we decided to put the same energy and work into trying to help other children and other families."
