Tyler DeMarco Foundation to hold first Fore Hope Golf Tournament
Tyler DeMarco’s wish to find a cure for childhood brain cancer and enhancing care for local families is still going strong.
The Tyler DeMarco Foundation, formed by Tyler’s parents, Don and Pam DeMarco, is holding its inaugural `Fore Hope` Golf Tournament on Monday, June 20, at the Western Turnpike Golf Course to raise funds to help fight childhood cancer. Money raised from the event will go toward supporting childhood cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Hospital and to assist in creating private, specialized chemotherapy rooms at the Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center. Tyler lost his four-year battle with medulloblastoma in February of last year, leaving behind his parents and older brother, Ryan, now 17.
`We certainly wanted to do something that would be able to raise money for our goals and were approached by two volunteers that were golfers that wanted to do this,` said Don DeMarco, Tyler’s father. `We have been very happy with our sponsor participation and the golf participation was slow to start. We are very happy with our response but it can always be better.`
Tyler was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, the most common malignant central nervous tumor, at 9 years old in 2006 at the Children’s Hospital in Albany. He successfully went through the delicate surgery to remove the majority of the tumor from his brain. What followed was six weeks of daily radiation treatment to his brain and spine. Then he continued to have one year of aggressive chemotherapy and had several blood transfusions.
After completing initial treatments, he enjoyed 11 months of remission, but relapsed in late March 2009. An MRI revealed the cancer had returned and metastasized to his spinal cord and other areas of his brain. There is no cure for recurrent medulloblastoma, but St. Jude’s accepted him as the first of three patients to participate in a `phase one` clinical trial.
`When Tyler was re-diagnosed we were told that there was no other treatment and to go home and enjoy what time you have,` said DeMarco. `You can’t accept that, so I started researching right away.`
The clinical trial actually opened up the same day he was re-diagnosed, said Don DeMarco, but the trial was deemed unsuccessful after two months as the cancer continued to spread. Tyler DeMarco passed away 11 months later on February 23, 2010.
`We kind of looked at him as a pioneer in this and looked at it as a blessing,` said DeMarco about the clinical trial. `As I’ve learned through much more research, often times these clinical trials fail but they learn as they move ahead with these trials.`
Through Tyler’s experience he thought no kid should have to go through the same thing he did and he started to raise money to find a cure. Also, he realized children and families should be able to have their own private rooms and not share a space with another child that might not even be going through cancer treatment.
`If you ask any child or parent who is going through something as highly emotional and difficult as is cancer, it becomes tough to share a room,` said Don DeMarco. `We had some situations that were uncomfortable at the hospital, but it was no fault of the doctors or nurses.`
DeMarco said his son started to raise funds to find a cure because `that is just the kind of kid he was. He was just a very loving and compassionate child.`
Whether it was school assignments, sports, or even his cause to raise funds for research he was always determined, said DeMarco. Tyler is still the driving force behind the volunteer for the tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
`If it was up to my wife and I, we probably wouldn’t have taken on this challenge ourselves, but because Tyler said that he wanted to do this that is why we are doing it,` said DeMarco. `Since we have started this, we have had people reach out to us all across the country with their children that were going through the same disease or a disease like it. There has been an incredible bond over the phone and through email.`
To register for the `Fore Hope` golf tournament and find more information on the Tyler DeMarco Foundation visit
. The deadline for tournament registration is Friday, June 10. Donations can also be made on the foundation’s website.
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